Calls for the UK government to invest more in renewable energy research

Brussels, 04 Apr 2003

The UK government must invest more on energy research if it is to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent over the next fifty years - the goal outlined by the government in a recent white paper. This is the message in a new report from the UK House of Common's Science and Technology Committee.

The government paper pledged an additional 60 million GBP (87.6 million euro) for renewable energy technologies, increasing its total spending in the field to around 350 million GBP (511 million euro) over four years.

The report criticises the number of different funding sources and the resulting fragmentation of research, and calls for further investment as well as more focus so as to keep up with competitors.

'There is a superabundance of funding bodies, resulting in fragmentation of effort and confusion in academia and industry,' says the report. 'Where UK technologies are developed, we found the private sector unwilling to develop these technologies while the government is failing to step in to take them forward or provide the necessary incentives to encourage private companies.'

The committee report proposes the establishment of a 'renewable energy authority' to identify and develop the technologies that are best suited to the UK's natural resources and skills, and suggests that the focus should be on wind, wave and tidal technologies, as well as nuclear fission and fusion. To read the committee report, please
click here

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