Politics and the Energy debate

With apologies to everyone who has had enough of politics at the minute - seems you can't get away from it anywhere, however the analysts are in overdrive so interesting bits and pieces of information continue to appear in the national press, which are worthy of sharing...

In five years time we start to switch off our old coal power stations and another five years after that we are meqant to be meeting some highly challenging targets in terms of usage of renewable energy. Add to this an increasing dependancy on imported gas, as our own stocks continue to dwindle, you really do need to ask why power isn't higher on the current political agenda.

Party lines are blurred, but differences do exist. Take greenhouse gases as an example. Tories want an 80% reduction by 2050, while Labour want 40% by 2020, & 100% 2050. Libdem are similar with 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Bold targets to be achieved in a relatively short timeframe - yet no substance anywhere to detail how they might be achieved.

As Energy assessors, when we assess a building we look at it's energy efficiency and it's carbon footprint and identify ways to make improvements. What would make a substantial difference now is for government to set targets, incentives and possibly legislation to ACT upon these recommendations. Driving up the energy efficiency of housing stock will make a significant contribution to meeting these ambitious targets in the years ahead.

Pipe dreams perhaps, but energy will need to become higher and higher up everyones agenda in years to come as it becomes higher on the political agenda on a UK, European or Global scale. A little encouragement now from our lords and masters could get the ball rolling quite nicely.