Government back-pedals on renewable energy targets

Following an expose by The Guardian newspaper, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said that the Brussels deal that Tony Blair had signed up to earlier this year did not specify that all EU members had to meet the 20% level, as long as it was achieved across Europe as a whole. He told BBC’s Newsnight: “We are negotiating with the European Commission, but it’s got to be a considerable figure. It’s got to be somewhere between 10 and 15%.”

According to the Guardian, the leaked briefing documents revealed that the targets the ex-Prime Minister had signed up to - for 20% of all European energy to come from renewables by 2020 – would be expensive and create ‘severe practical difficulties’. The Guardian also claimed that the documents revealed that John Hutton, secretary of state for business, would tell Gordon Brown that Britain should work with governments who were sceptical about climate change to persuade them to set lower renewable targets.

The UK currently sources just 2% of its energy from wind, wave and solar power: to boost this to 9% by 2020 would cost around £4 billion.