On 7 April Boris Johnson unveiled the British energy security strategy. It comes on the tail of the IPCC’s most recently released report on climate change’s projected impacts, which urges immediate and dramatic action as the world races towards climate devastation and ecological collapse. The government’s energy strategy focuses on showy and expensive technologies, as opposed to quickly deployable renewable technologies and housing retrofit strategies. There are no additional consumption reduction measure proposed or budgets offered: a major capitalist country like Britain cannot allow fetters on its ability to accumulate capital. Instead it will seek new energy sources that will continue to wreak havoc on the environment and catapult the planet towards destruction.
Johnson’s plan fixates on environmentally devastating energy sources: nuclear and blue hydrogen (where hydrogen is produced from natural gas and steam methane and in the process also produces carbon monoxide). It also focuses on high-cost offshore wind energy.
Nuclear energy
The government has stated an ambition to produce up to 24GW of nuclear power by 2050, claiming this would cover around 25% of projected electricity demand. The UK’s current energy mix has only 7GW of nuclear power which is slated to be retired by the end of the decade, implying that the government’s 24GW commitment will have to come almost entirely from new nuclear development projects.
Implied timelines clearly signal that the majority of these nuclear projects will not have approval let alone begin construction until the latter half of this decade. Moreover, although advertised as a ‘renewable energy’, nuclear energy produces radioactive waste that is notoriously difficult to dispose of. Radioactive energy leaks contaminate air, land and water and can have fatal consequences on humans and other lifeforms.
Offshore wind power
The energy security strategy sets new ambitions to develop up to 50GW of offshore wind power by 2030, ‘more than enough to power every home in the UK.’ Currently, around 11GW of offshore wind power is operational with a further 3GW fully commissioned or under construction and another 9GW in the pipeline. There are no concrete plans in the strategy for how this 27GW gap will be filled.
Offshore wind energy requires the development of offshore electrical substations – the entry and exit point for energy generated from wind turbines in the sea to enter the electrical grid – and lines linking offshore substations to onshore hubs. Huge investment in Britain’s transmission network will be required, greatly increasing total investment costs of developing offshore wind.
Solar and onshore wind energy
Solar energy and onshore wind power are respectively the first and second-cheapest ways to generate electricity in Britain and have high public approval rates especially when compared to nuclear energy. These two energy technologies are the cheapest and fastest way to decease reliance on fossil fuels in the short term. Current policy greatly restricts the development of new wind farms in 89% of local authorities in England, due to the barriers and delays in the application and approval processes, despite local interest in developing and managing their own turbines. The strategy looks to increase UK’s current 14GW solar power capacity to 70GW by 2035, but says little about where this fivefold increase will come from in reality.
Fossil fuel production
The first of the IPCC’s major reports in August 2021 could not have been clearer: we are on code red for humanity (see FRFI 284). Climate scientists have stressed the need to stop all new fossil fuel production. And still Johnson’s strategy includes plans to launch another licensing round for North Sea oil and gas projects.
Britain has an estimated 50 fossil fuel projects in the pipeline between now and 2025. Several of these have been agreed since Johnson declared Britain to be a ‘global leader in tackling climate change’ in October 2021.
Consumption reduction avoided
Improving home insulation is one of the cheapest and most quickly actionable strategies to reduce energy demand, energy bills, and reliance on fossil fuels. This is why the direct action group Insulate Britain demand that the government insulate all social housing by 2025. Home insulation is energy efficient and would help the millions of cash-strapped households struggling to pay basic energy bills, but it would not be profitable for the British ruling class and giant energy multinationals. Johnson’s energy strategy offers no new funding to support home insulation. It only caters to those wealthy enough to invest in their own solar panels and insulation, offering them a reduction in the VAT paid.
The primary method by which the government currently supports home insulation improvement for low-income and vulnerable households is through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme. The ECO scheme requires large energy suppliers to install insulation in low-quality housing through a levy on energy bills. However, the ECO scheme is primarily administered by local authorities and consumers are required to push through complicated and confusing scheme specifications and reach out to energy suppliers themselves for a service that is then provided by a separate entity.
Implementation of this scheme varies greatly by local authorities. Some provide referral services while others broadcast little to no information about the existence of such schemes. Savage cuts have forced local authorities to scale back non-essential services including fuel poverty and energy efficiency evaluations, widening the cracks through which vulnerable households in desperate need of home energy improvement slip. Last year the government scrapped its £1.5bn flagship green homes grant scheme, a programme botched six months after its introduction by rushed deployment and undeliverable timetables.
While the energy security plan waxes poetic about flashy technologies and their potential, it commits to very few concrete actions. It refuses to address methods for increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumption. And of course, none of its initiatives acknowledge that British imperialism will need to loot and plunder from underdeveloped countries the rare earth metals needed to manufacture the proposed nuclear energy and wind turbines.
Soma Kisan
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 288, June/July 2022
