10 July 2006 - Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has called on EU leaders meeting at next week’s G8 summit (July 15-17) in Russia to reject a draft energy agreement which would commit the world’s richest nations to the continued use of fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Dr Lucas said a radical new approach based on renewable generation and energy efficiency and conservation was needed if we are to secure supplies – and tackle climate change.  She dismissed a paper by EU Foreign Policy representative Xavier Solano as a ‘20 th Century response to a 21 st Century problem’.

She said: “The G8 leaders’ emphasis on international trade in fossil fuels and atomic energy is a recipe for more globalisation, more war, more nuclear weapons and more climate change.

“But worst of all, it relies on dwindling resources and inefficient, ageing infrastructure: it just won’t improve security of energy supply at all.”

The Green Party Principal Speaker has backed the findings of a Warwick Business School study which argues that real energy security can only be safeguarded by decentralising the electricity grid – and replacing a small number of large power stations with a large number of small, diverse, highly efficient energy sources.

The report says existing grid-based electricity supply are vulnerable to huge power cuts – such as recent blackouts in Italy, Sweden and the US – peaking oil and uranium supplies, aging infrastructure and high maintenance and set-up costs.

A decentralised system, based on a mixture of renewable generation technologies near the point of energy use would, on the other hand, improve long-term security of supplies, cut losses in power production and transmission, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions – and create local jobs.

Decentralised energy is already a reality in some EU countries: Denmark , for example, gets more than half its electricity from decentralised sources: Latvia , Finland and the Netherlands between 35 and 40 per cent. The UK languishes near the foot of the EU table, with just eight per cent coming from decentralised sources.

Dr Lucas said: “The G8 meeting is right to discuss the threats to energy security – but its emphasis on fossil fuels and nuclear energy will fail to address either their dependence of dwindling and politically precarious supplies or their devastating impact on climate change.

“We need a radical new agenda if we are tackle the twin challenges of climate change and energy insecurity, an agenda based on more localised generation, renewables – and greater energy efficiency.”

She added: “The draft currently on the table can only make our energy supplies more fragile – and impose an unacceptable cost on the environment. The G8 leaders must have the vision to adopt a 21st century solution to a 21st century problem rather than just backing their vested interests in the oil and nuclear power industries.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

Real Energy Security and the transition to a Decentralised Energy System, Dr Bridget Woodman and Dr Catherine Mitchell, Warwick Business School