By Muhammad Mussa
LONDON (AA) – The British government on Thursday announced its plans to put nuclear power at the center of the its new energy strategy despite criticisms from opposition parties and environmental activists.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement after a series of lengthy debates and political infighting within the government and the ruling Conservative Party. The move was made amid the Russian war on Ukraine that has pulverized global energy markets and sent UK homes soaring energy bills.
“This (energy strategy) is about tackling the mistakes of the past and making sure that we are set well for the future and we are never again subject to the vagaries of the global oil and gas prices and we can’t be subject to blackmail, as it were, from people such as (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, we have energy security here in the UK,” Johnson said.
As part of the new strategy, the government will build eight new nuclear reactors to boost domestic energy production and reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign energy sources. Under the new proposals, up to 95% of Britain’s electricity needs could be sourced from low-carbon sources by 2030.
The new strategy introduced by the government defines a broad plan to increase domestic energy production through various modes of sources other than atomic power. These sources include raising the offshore wind target from 40GW to 50GW, increasing solar power from 14GW to 70GW by 2035 and increasing hydrogen power to 10GW by 2030.
“The plan will reduce our dependence on power sources exposed to volatile international prices we cannot control, so we can enjoy greater energy self-sufficiency with cheaper bills. This plan comes in light of rising global energy prices, provoked by surging demand after the pandemic as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Johnson said.
“This will be central to weaning Britain off expensive fossil fuels, which are subject to volatile gas prices set by international markets we are unable to control, and boosting our diverse sources of homegrown energy for greater energy security in the long term,” he added.
In a controversial move, the government will also reconsider the possibility of reintroducing fracking, which was banned in 2019 due to its harmful effects on the environment and climate, as well as increasing oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Environmentalists have accused the government of backtracking on its own climate policies and caving into the demands of Tory MPs.
To facilitate and manage domestic nuclear energy production, the government announced the creation of the Great British Nuclear, a body that will supposedly bolster the UK’s nuclear capacity and to have the eight reactors approved by 2030 and running by 2050 by which time 25% of the UK’s electricity will be derived from atomic power.
- Environmentalists, opposition parties react with rage, disbelief
The government’s new energy plans have infuriated environmental activists and opposition parties who argue the strategy goes against the government’s own net-zero carbon footprint policy with the impartial review on fracking and further oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.
The opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have described the strategy as “ludicrous” and “hopeless” as it fails to tackle energy inefficiency and expand onshore wind power that would be more energy efficient and climate friendly. The government has also been accused of offering no new policies on saving energy consumption by means of mass insulation or reducing bills and emissions.
“Boris Johnson has completely caved to his own backbenchers and now, ludicrously, his own energy strategy has failed on the sprint we needed on onshore wind and solar – the cheapest, cleanest forms of homegrown power,” Ed Miliband, Labour’s climate change secretary said in a statement.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats and a former energy secretary, said “the Conservatives’ failure to help people cut their bills with an urgent energy insulation programme, the failure to back super-cheap onshore wind and the failure to back properly new technologies like tidal power and hydrogen is a total betrayal of families and pensioners across the UK.”
Before the launch of the UK’s new energy strategy, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng revealed that the new plans could take up to five years to bring down energy bills.