UK Government Roadmap to Tackle Climate Change

Wednesday saw the high profile launch of the UK Government's "UK Low Carbon Transition Plan", setting out, in more detail than the generic statements made at G8, how the UK intends to address the twin challenges of reducing our CO2 emissions as well as preparing us for reduced availability and higher-priced oil and gas.

Mid-term targets, missing from the G8 leaders' declaration, include a 34% cut in CO2 emissions from 1990 levels by 2020 as well as generating 15% of our energy from renewable sources by the same date.

The transition plan was accompanied by three key planning and strategy documents:

• The Low Carbon Industrial Strategy
• The Renewable Energy Strategy
• The Low Carbon Transport Plan

See DECC's WEBSITE for full Renewable Energy Strategy documents.

Green Energy - National Grid on UK Wind Power

Perhaps a strange first post for a freelance photojournalist, but I want to share stories that I find particularly important in the context of climate change and the role renewable energy can play in reducing CO2 emissions.

One of the myths spread by oponents of wind power is that "wind power will always need to have an equivalent capacity of conventional back-up generation to support it as wind power is intermittent". The UK's "National Grid" has recently issued a report dispelling this myth. . . .http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2244492/national-grid-takes-wind-energy

Coupled with the UK Government's recent Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) confirming that a further 25GW of offshore wind electricity generation capacity could be accommodated in UK waters, things finally look more promising for windpower in the UK. More on the Guardian's website at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/25/offshore-wind-uk-homes