Nuclear plans threaten UK's part in renewables revolution, expert warns

[kristopher]

Nuclear plans threaten UK's part in renewables revolution, expert warns
Prof John Schellnhuber says UK is not fit to take part in 'third industrial revolution' of switch to clean energy
Damian Carrington and Hanna Gersmann guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 November 2011 07.06 EST

The UK's "eccentric" determination to build new nuclear power means it is not fit to take part in the "third industrial revolution" of switching to clean renewable energy, according to one of the world's most influential climate scientists.

Prof John Schellnhuber, the current adviser to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and previous adviser the president of the European commission and other governments, said the UK was missing out owing to its failure to replicate the successful use of feed-in-tariffs (Fits) to kickstart its renewables industry.

Schellnhuber also said that the world's energy system could be transformed to a cleaner and cheaper renewable model for the same expenditure already paid out in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

In 2010, $409bn was given to the oil, gas and coal industry as subsidy, with just $66bn going to green energy.

In an interview with the Guardian, Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/15/nuclear-renewables-schellnhuber


Further on, Schellnhuber makes a point similar to one I pressed here yesterday - that a grand international agreement to limit emissions was not expected to be accomplished, but nonetheless the policies of individual nations that have been driving economic activity on the renewable front have lowered the costs, and that the circumstances leave him "confident that the energy transformation was underway".