EU 'must end love affair with nuclear power'

In an article first published in the Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Green Party MEP Jean Lambert calls on the EU to do more to promote renewable sources of energy.

The news that a sudden jump in global CO2 levels unlinked to industrial emissions has been detected by scientists in Hawaii is devastating. How to provide for peoples’ needs and their supplementary desires in a way that does not destroy our planet is becoming ever more crucial.

If we believe, as a report for the Pentagon has suggested, that climate change will make disruption and conflict "endemic", then we should now be in no doubt that an urgent new approach is needed by the EU on energy policy.

The EU has been a driving force in keeping alive the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, having set a reduction level of an average eight per cent for the EU15 from 1990 levels, to be achieved over the period 2008 to 2012. This is a modest target. However, even that is not being met for a variety of reasons – one of which is rising demand.

Spain has seven per cent of its electricity needs met by wind power but the growing numbers of mainly British and German citizens retreating to the Spanish Mediterranean coast means extra demand and so no reduction in emissions. Similarly, improving car exhaust emissions means no overall impact on air quality if we have an ever-greater number of vehicles in use.

So reducing demand for fossil fuel energies is crucial to combating climate change, as is increasing electrical production from renewable energies. The EU expects member states to produce 10 per cent of electrical needs from renewables by 2012. The gains in jobs alone could be enormous – Germany currently has about 100,000 people employed in the field while the UK has about 4,000.

However, we are not going to meet those targets without consistent pricing for input to the grid and incentives to improve public uptake. The EU could do some serious work to push "green" training, so that consumers could find qualified plumbers and electricians, for example, to install and maintain solar heating systems and energy efficient condensing boilers.

The EU also has to end its love affair with nuclear power. We are seeing the nuclear industry re-branding itself as environmentally friendly and low emission – unfortunately not in radioactive waste materials – in greenhouse gas emissions over a full life cycle. The chance to drop the preferential treatment of the nuclear industry was only partially won in the new constitutional treaty. The Euratom treaty, which contains a commitment for the EU to "promote" nuclear power is now a protocol so at least you no longer have to sign up to join the union. This is good news for those who opposed Turkish proposals to build a nuclear power plant on an earthquake fault line.

However, the Commission has got to sort out the state companies, like EDF, who have used their nuclear decommissioning money to buy up utilities elsewhere – like in London. This is not a level playing field and makes life more difficult for smaller companies.

The EU has also got to look seriously at introducing green taxes. It could start with taxing aircraft fuel, currently tax free unlike the fuel for cars, buses or trains. Increased air travel is the fastest growing source of gas emissions. The EU needs a comprehensive policy towards reducing air travel. The European parliament's petitions committee is already having to deal with appeals about expanding airports in Madrid, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

It is clear that across a range of key energy areas, the EU has a significant role to play in promoting a pro-environment agenda in the 25 member states. There is currently a huge variation in approaches, and more can be done to promote a consistent policy that encourages clean sources of fuel and works towards reducing demand.

In Britain, the government promises that tacking global warming will be one of its key priorities when it takes over the EU presidency in the second half of next year. Encouraging sustainable development should form a key part of its strategy, and energy policy has a key role to play within that approach.

Jean Lambert is Green Party MEP for the London region