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There is now a consensus that carbon dioxide emissions are causing climate change and the harmful effects are widely recognised. The impacts of climate change will be global, and in this country it is now widely accepted as a very real threat.

Sir David King, the UK's Chief Scientific Adviser, wrote in Science in 2004 (i), "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism".

Most of our electricity generation in the UK is produced by large, centralised power plants fuelled by natural gas (41%), coal (33%) and nuclear (19%). In 2004, renewable energy contributed 3.2% of the total electricity supply (ii).

The combustion of fossil fuels such as gas and coal emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. 29% of carbon dioxide emissions currently come from power stations (iii).

The drive towards a low carbon economy depends greatly on the successful implementation of renewable energy generation technologies, which do not produce greenhouse gases during operation and which depend on a totally renewable and sustainable fuel source.

Renewable energy has other advantages too - it can help to diversify the UK's electricity generation network, reducing our dependence on imported fuels. By 2020, the Department for Trade and Industry calculates that the UK could be dependent on imported energy for 75% of its total primary energy needs.

Climate change has to be tackled at every level, from the individual through to global measures. There are a number of key national and international agreements in place to help to stimulate the development of the low carbon technologies required to cut emissions and targets to drive progress.

One of the key global tools is the Kyoto Protocol (iv), to which the UK has signed up and which came into force in February 2005. This commits the UK to meeting targets to reduce emissions of key greenhouse gases. The UK Climate Change Programme implements measures necessary to achieve these targets, aiming for a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

To help tackle this source of CO₂ emissions, the UK now has targets in place to generate 10% of its electricity using renewable energy sources by 2010, with an aspiration to achieve 20% by 2020.

References

King, D. (2004). Climate Change Science: Adapt, Mitigate or Ignore? Science, Jan 9 2004.
Sustainable Development Commission (2005) Wind Power in the UK
DTi (March 2005). Energy Trends.
Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1997). Available at http://unfccc.int/essential_background/kyoto_protocol/items/1678.php