| UK Business leaders back low-carbon nuclear | | Print | |
| Thursday, 01 July 2010 | |
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New nuclear power stations for the UK got a massive thumbs-up from Britain’s top
business leaders.
Nuclear was the only
carbon-cutting measure which won universal approval at a top climate change
task force organised by The Times newspaper.
The event this week in London included a panel of top Chief Executives including Lord Rothschild, the CBI’s Richard Lambert and Sir Kevin Smith. The climate change taskforce backed nuclear because it is the “only low-carbon baseload technology that would reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.” The Times’ environment editor Ben Webster reported that wind and solar power were discussed – but that the climate change task force opted for nuclear on both environmental and security of supply grounds. The task force produced five proposals for combating climate change: 1 – Britain should build eight nuclear power stations by 2025 2 – Set a six-month limit for planning decisions on low-carbon infrastructure 3 – Revenue-neutral carbon tax on consumption of goods & services 4 – Stimulate investment in low-carbon technologies with a new floor price for carbon 5 – Focus and fund research to take carbon out of the atmosphere. The task force identified transition to a low carbon economy as a major opportunity for UK business. However The Times noted that creating effective carbon pricing could be a highly complicated public policy. Ben Caldecott, head of UK and European climate change policy at Climate Change Capital co-chaired the high-profile group of British business leaders. “Britain now has a great set of companies occupying that low-carbon space, to help us to go through this manufacturing renaissance to produce technologies that we can sell to a developing world.” Comments (0)
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