Greenpeace's submission to the 2006 Energy Review

The Greenpeace response to the Department of Trade and Industry's Energy Review consultation document 'Our Energy Challenge' (January 2006)

Publication date: 18^th April 2006

Summary
This document lays down Greenpeace's views on the 2006 Energy Review consultation. It sets out in detail the case against nuclear power as a solution to climate change and energy security. It also sets out the case in support of wholesale reform of the energy system in order to bring about a truly holistic, decentralised energy system that genuinely incentivises rapid deployment of renewable energy at all levels, makes efficient use of gas supplies as a necessary bridging fuel and provides a framework for achieving demand reduction across all sectors.

Very briefly, our submission states that nuclear power will not stop climate change or ensure energy security. Our submission argues that the application of decentralised energy constitutes a genuinely achievable pathway that will deliver greater cuts in CO₂ and greater energy security than the centralised, nuclear option. Research commissioned by Greenpeace (Annex 6) demonstrates that by 2023, pursuit of a decentralised energy approach could deliver:

• CO₂ savings 17% greater than under a centralised nuclear energy scenario.
• Reductions in overall gas consumption 15% greater than compared to a centralised nuclear scenario.
• Capital cost savings of £1bn compared to centralised nuclear scenario.

What is needed by government at the crucial stage in the fight against climate change is not a throw back to the energy mistakes of the past, but a shift towards an energy system that reflects the needs of the 21st Century to use cleaner energy and use less of it.

Greenpeace calls on the government to take the opportunity presented by this energy review to recognise the outdated, fragmented and inherently wasteful structure of our existing energy system and begin the process of wholesale regulatory and market reform that is necessary to make decentralised energy the mainstay of the UK's energy system for the decades to come.