Prime minister calls for more energy-from-waste

Mr Brown speaking at the One Planet Future seminar, hosted by conservation organisation WWF in Westminster today, said that if Britain wanted to meet its target for renewable energy production, generating power from waste must increase.

Presently, around 2% of the UK's energy is generated from renewable sources but at the EU's Spring Council, member states agreed to hike this figure to 20% by 2020.

Mr Brown said in his speech that meeting renewables target would require “more onshore wind farms – sited in the right places; greater use of energy derived from waste; a major expansion of energy from biomass; and greater use of microgeneration, including, as costs come down, more solar power.”

The Prime Minister's speech – delivered two weeks before the UN Climate Conference in Bali, Indonesia – centred on how the UK can build a low carbon society and cut emissions.

He explained the EU needed to cut carbon emissions by 60 to 80% by 2050, to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Centigrade. He added that Britain, which presently produces around 654 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent annually, needed to reduced this to between 155 and 310 million tonnes by the middle of the century.

Mr Brown continued: “This means a significant change in our energy economy. Indeed I believe it will require no less than a fourth technological revolution. In the past the steam engine, the internal combustion engine and the microprocessor transformed not just technology but the way society was organised and the way people lived. Now we are about to embark on a comparable technological transformation – to low carbon energy and energy efficiency.”

He reiterated the government's pledge to legislate in its Energy Bill to reform the Renewables Obligation “to bring forward newer technologies”. Under the Obligation, power suppliers using renweable technologies are financially rewarded.

Plastic bags 

The Prime Minister endorsed the actions of the 70-or-so towns, villages and cities across Britain, which have banned or proposed to ban plastic bags under voluntary agreements with traders. London Councils is in the process of submitting a Bill to Parliament to seek a legal ban in the capital(see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Brown said: “One of the biggest contributors to our greenhouse gas emissions is landfilled waste. And all over the country campaigns are forming to get rid of disposable plastic bags – one of the most visible symbols of environmental waste.

“Every year in Britain, over 13 billion single-use carrier bags are distributed – over 10 bags a week for every household. In partnership with Government the supermarkets have already committed to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bags by 25 per cent over the next year.

“But I believe we can go further. Indeed, I am convinced that we can eliminate single-use disposable bags altogether in favour of long-lasting and more sustainable alternatives,” he added.