UK Low Carbon Transition Plan

I see this as a good sign of rubber hitting the road. It can help with reducing uncertainty and helping other countries draft similar plans.

I had an opportunity to listen (via podcast) to Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change at LSE. He talks about this transition plan, his vision, and politics. Way to go.

The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan

The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan plots how the UK will meet the 34 percent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020, set out in the budget. We have already reduced emissions by 21 percent – equivalent to cutting emissions entirely from four cities the size of London.

Transforming the country into a cleaner, greener and more prosperous place to live is at the heart of our economic plans for 'building Britain’s future' and ensuring the UK is ready to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

By 2020:
* More than 1.2 million people will be in green jobs.
* 7 million homes will have benefited from whole house makeovers, and more than 1.5 million households will be supported to produce their own clean energy.
* Around 40 percent of electricity will be from low-carbon sources, from renewables, nuclear and clean coal.
* We will be importing half the amount of gas that we otherwise would.
* The average new car will emit 40 percent less carbon than now.

Peakoil Contingency Planning Talk Goes Mainstream

This is a small group but pretty influential - Virgin and Yahoo in UK. But the fact that they have publicly asked for a contingency plan is interesting. They mention 2013 as the year of the peak. There is an interesting alignment between Climate and Energy. Both require going green in a big way and fast!

Energy security body calls for 'urgent' review of impact of oil shortages

Virgin, Stagecoach and Yahoo among firms calling for measures to address economic dislocation from a sudden rise in oil prices....
An industry organisation that includes Virgin and Yahoo has called on the government to "urgently" reassess its dismissive view about the potential threat and impact of oil shortages.

The call from the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security comes after revelations in the Guardian that there is dissent inside the International Energy Agency (IEA) about how soon the world may run out of supplies.

It also comes alongside a petition to Number 10 which calls on Gordon Brown to take up the issue more seriously amid a growing number of reports that indicate the situation is more urgent than many believed.

The Wicks Review into energy issues, published in August on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, gave scant regard to peak oil issues.

Will Whitehorn, the taskforce chairman, who is also president of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's space travel business, said: "Given the revelations from within the IEA, we hope the government will be urgently reviewing the complacent approach to peak-oil risk evident in the Wicks Review."

Other members of the taskforce include Scottish and Southern Energy, Stagecoach, the transport group, and Arup, the civil engineering consultancy. Work already undertaken by the taskforce has suggests that more needs to be done to prepare for the potential economic dislocation from a sudden huge rise in crude prices.

The report of this group is called The Oil Crunch. More about the group:

The UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES) is a group of British companies concerned that threats to energy security are not receiving the attention they merit.

The Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security

The aim of our first report is to engage government more proactively on the peak oil threat, and also to alert the public to the problem. We aim to encourage collaborative contingency planning by government, industry, and communities on measures that can be taken to accelerate independent energy supply within the UK.

In preparing this report, we asked ourselves three related questions: How big is the risk from peak oil? How big is the alternative-energy opportunity? How do the two conflate?