Earlier today Ming Campbell launched the Liberal Democrats’ proposals to make Britain carbon neutral by 2050.
He said:
“With these policies the Liberal Democrats have become the first major British party to map out the route to a carbon neutral Britain.
“And the first to plan the way towards a cleaner global environment too.
“Pollution doesn’t respect national boundaries. Climate change is a global problem that requires an international solution.
“Britain should not be a bit player in finding that solution; we should be leading the pack.
“Under our proposals, the United Kingdom would set the green standard for others to reach.”
Further details, including the full policy document detailing the plans which will be debated at the party’s autumn conference, are avaiable on the Liberal Democrat website.
One big problem with this policy – it excludes nuclear power.
The villains of the piece are the fossil fuel power stations. THEY should be the target of our party’s condemnation not the n.p. stations.
It should be clear by now that n.p. has underpinned our electricity production for decades and stands set fair to bear the load that a decline in fossil fuel burning will put upon our system as it becomes slowly more sustainable and renewable.
‘Green’ electricity provides yet a tiny proportion of our needs and wind wave and solar are largely inefficient and very expensive. (Yes, n.p. is expensive but it WORKS and on a large scale and is RELIABLE.) It will be decades before the renewables get close to matching fossil in scope. In the meantime we do not need to endure a hair-shirt environment on cold windless nights in winter if we can keep out nuclear compopment.
It was noticeable that the vote at Conference last year on n.p.was greeted with the whoops and yells akin to the reception of a southern Baptist minister at a fundamentalist meeting in the Deep South of the US – not an intelligent LIBERAL party in a Western democracy. It was a truly sickening moment. Our decisions should be based on reason, not hatred.
I am on the verge of resigning from the LibDems, having been a member for 45 years. Why? because of its continuing anti-nuclear power policy. I was one of those who was delighted to see that Lovelock (he of the Gaia hypothesis) and Bishop Montefiore – both vehemently anti-nuclear power writers and speakers- publicly changed their minds, having once compared carbon emmissions from different electricity generating stations. I fully expected a modern-thinking Lib-Dem party to follow suit, but sadly they are still believing the nonsense being put out by the so-called ‘green’ fringe.
Wind farms belong off-shore, as do wave machines, and as for solar power… where’s the sun? Coal is far too valuable a resource to burn.
Come on Ming – get real. Unless we build nuclear power stations now, we can never meet the UK’s modest carbon emission targets. You know it makes sense!
Sincerely
Nick Hance
Buckland, Oxfordshire