Amber Rudd, the energy secretary in the UK, revealed that she does not believe the country will be able to meet their renewable energy target, obligated by the European Union, of 15% by the year 2020.
Now she is accused of misleading the public, and will probably have to answer to the Commons energy committee directly today after the news was first reported yesterday. This revelation was found in a leaked email obtained by the Ecologist magazine, stating that Rudd is worried that the country will only reach 11.5% renewable energy in five years.
As Rowena Mason and Adam Vaughan report in The Guardian, Rudd in June publicly stated to the House of Commons that the UK would be able to reach their goal, but stated in an email sent on the 29th of October that “the trajectory…leads to a shortfall against the target of…3.5% points (with a range of 2.1-4.5% points) in our internal central forecasts (which are not public). Publically, we are clear that the UK continues to make progress to meet the target.”
The email also reveals that Rudd was worried about the fines that they may receive from the EU if they do not fulfill their duties.
Rudd did make several suggestions to improve the forecast, even drastic measures like financing renewable energy projects in other EU countries to offset their emissions was offered as a last resort. She also suggested speeding up other projects and schmoozing with the EU member states to make them more “flexible”, in her words.
It is a problem when state officials mislead the public. However, it is also somewhat unreasonable to expect not to behave in this manner. When the target is merely a number, without any measure of the quality of the projects, it invites corruption. Renewable energy, on a large scale, is new to us and it is not easy to build new infrastructure both quickly and with a lot of skill. The EU should re-evaluate their renewable energy programs so that everyone can focus on finding quality, long-term solutions and not arbitrary numerical goals.
Image (c) Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
