Our view
Transport is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions. Photo: © CPRE
Big cuts in energy demand
We need to use the energy we consume more efficiently and reduce our overall demand for energy to help meet the UK’s target of reducing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide emissions, by at least 80% by 2050.
The Government has recognised that energy efficiency is the cheapest way to tackle climate change. Yet, energy companies are still regulated to compete on price, not on delivering energy efficiency.
We think energy companies should be encouraged to deliver energy reduction and efficiency, rather than lower prices. And we support new technologies such as smart meters to enable energy users to see how much energy they use, and help sell any excess electricity back to the grid.
Transport is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions, yet the Government is determined to provide for increases in road and air travel. Not only do we need improved low-carbon options to get about, such as railways and cycling, we need to plan more to travel less, such as by promoting holidays in England and supporting local shops not out-of-town supermarkets.
> Our transport campaigns
No to Kingsnorth Coal Power Plant
We are against the proposed new coal power plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, and CPRE Kent has taken a lead in the local campaign against the plant. There should be no new coal power stations until carbon capture and storage (CCS – a new way of storing carbon dioxide emissions in the ground or under the sea) has been fully proven. Fossil fuel plants with CCS will need to be regulated to a high performance standard. The energy supply sector accounts for some 40% of UK carbon dioxide emissions, so ensuring that new energy generation is lower in carbon dioxide emissions is essential to tackle climate change.
Locally-produced energy is key
Coal and gas power plants waste all the heat they produce by burning fuel to generate electricity unless they are designed as combined heat and power plants. We also lose up to 3% of the electricity generated by large, centralised power plants through National Grid transmission and distribution. We want to see many more rural and urban communities produce their own electricity and heat, by using appropriately sited renewable or low-carbon energy sources. For example, they can transmit electricity generated by burning biogas produced from farm slurry through local distribution networks, avoiding the need for new large pylons and helping to reduce transmission and generation losses.
Households, schools and rural communities can also make a difference by producing heat using small-scale low-carbon technologies, such as ground source heat pumps or boilers burning woodchips from local coppice. As they become more commercially viable, microgeneration technologies using local decentralised transmission can help meet local energy needs. But they can offer only a modest contribution to renewable energy supply by 2020.
Large-scale renewables
We support the principle of generating renewable energy from the wind, the sun and the sea to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
While our small island has some of the best wind resources in the world, onshore wind turbines have significant visual impacts in rural landscapes. We believe that the location and scale of wind turbines are key factors which planners and developers should take into account.
We want to see a planning system which follows rigorous procedures for siting wind turbines in areas of least landscape impact. The new transmission lines needed to connect these wind turbines should be buried underground or underwater to reduce landscape impacts.
We also want to see a greater emphasis given to offshore wind, providing the onshore sub-stations and transmission infrastructure are carefully designed and located.
