Tuesday, September 04, 2007

We'll be at the rear of the field come 2020

One of the oft quoted comments from those less inclined to consider the consequences of climate change/global warming is that nothing we do will make any difference while countries such as China are industrialising as quickly as they are.

Well, it would appear that when it comes to setting and achieving targets for generation of power from renewables, we will not even be competing in the achievement stakes. Despite Tony's much vaunted and publicly lauded target for the UK of 20% by 2020, we now know (see Coming Clean on this very blog) that the UK has absolutely zero realistic chance of hitting this target, and the best assessment is that we might, just, get to a 9% result if we really put some effort into the tasks required. (The actual result will be only 5% if current policies remain unchanged!)

This from China View, suggests that they intend to get to 15% of energy from renewables by 2020. Having spent some time in that part of the world, and knowing the work ethic of the Chinese, when they make a plan, they always have every intention of meeting the target set. And I am pretty certain that they will achieve this, whilst the UK slowly continues to fall behind in the renewables race.

Once again, it would appear that our Western predilection for setting totally unachievable targets is going to push the UK to the rear of the field. When will we ever learn?

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