LFIG FRINGE MEETING
AT THE WALES LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE
WHAT FUTURE FOR ENERGY?
Rt Hon Peter Hain MP
Chair: Geraint Davies, LFIG
Held at:
Dragon Hotel, Kingsway Swansea, 24th March 2006, 6.30 p.m.
LFIG held its second fringe meeting at a
Welsh Labour Party conference at Swansea’s Dragon Hotel on 24 March.
Chaired by former MP and LFIG Vice President Geraint Davies, the meeting
featured Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain on “which way our energy
future” and drew a wide audience including MPs Wayne David, Albert Owen
and Chris Ruane and Assembly Member Ann Jones.
Geraint Davies, the new Chair of Flood Risk Management Wales – the Welsh
regional flood defence committee -opened the meeting by pointing out that
the growing annual cost of flood damage in Wales is expected to rise from
£70m to £1400m by 2080 as a direct result of global warming from energy
use. In the same short timescale the number of Africans effected by
coastal flooding would grow from one to seventy million.
Geraint argued that the key issue for Britain is to take global leadership
in our energy strategy in order to influence the energy choices of
developing nations – in particular China – who will determine Britain’s
environment. Already China exports more manufactured goods than Europe and
consumes nearly half of the world’s raw materials. In the long term we
need sustainable energy for transport and industry such as local and
global opportunities to convert solar energy to hydrogen. In the short
term clean coal and nuclear may form the stop-gap before we have
sufficient infrastructure for a wholly sustainable solution. Time is
running out “The 35 cubic miles of Antarctic ice melting each year may
mean at Flood Risk Management Wales I may be forced to switch my role from
King Canute to Noah!”
Peter Hain stressed the massive climatic change that the world was likely
to experience and said that the UK was leading the way in curbing the
cause of this problem – carbon emissions. But he also believed that big
gaps in generating capacity would develop given the impending closure of
nuclear sites and the need to meet emission targets. This meant that there
would need to be a massive roll-out of renewable energies such as wind –
even though the subject was controversial – as well as using ‘clean’ coal
powered stations. The Welsh Assembly Government has set an ambition for
Wales to become a centre of excellence for renewables but that also
entails tough choices for people and politicians
Peter pointed out that many aspects of the nuclear option were
controversial or remained unanswered such as the massive decommissioning
cost and security and safety issues. However, he recognised the argument
that emission targets may not be met, and capacity maintained, without a
replacement nuclear build programme. He concluded by saying that the
debate on energy in the UK didn’t always strike him as being particularly
“real” at present. “We need to face up to the tough choices and decisions
needed now to deliver our emission targets and to stop the lights going
out.”
In raising points and questions, attendees felt that energy policy should
take forward a range of energy sources and avoid too much focus on one
solution, not least because of geo-political considerations. Whilst
accepting that the use of hydrogen based technologies could in future
become a viable alternative to nuclear generation, in the meantime the gap
between energy supply and demand and global warming continue to grow.
Given the importance of secure energy to sustainable development in
Britain there is a strong case for the Energy Minister to be given cabinet
rank.
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