A few months ago, the United Kingdom hosted COP26 and its energy strategy aimed to transition to carbon neutrality. Since then, the war in Ukraine and inflation have changed the situation.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Hinkley Point nuclear power station on Thursday.
The Conservative government unveiled a new energy security strategy on Thursday that wants to accelerate nuclear, wind, solar, but also fossil fuels in the North Sea, which has drawn criticism from NGOs and the opposition. . However, it is “not at all” a question of reducing the priority of climate commitments of the United Kingdom, assured Thursday morning the Minister of Energy, Kwasi Kwarteng on SkyNews. But “given what is happening in the world (…) we are also acting to make its energy independence in the United Kingdom”, he justified.
Energy independence
The country will “never again be blackmailed by people like (Russian President) Vladimir Putin”, added Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is targeting “nearly half of the country’s energy capacity coming from offshore wind from ‘by 2030.’ He also intends “to completely revive the nuclear industry, which, I fear, was more or less moribund in this country”, he added while visiting Thursday the construction site of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, the only one under construction in the country.
Solutions too slow
Critics targeted Thursday the choice to produce more hydrocarbons but also a strategy that will take years to bear fruit, without doing anything in the short term to reduce the energy bills of the British, who are blazing. Despite “some improvements on renewable energy targets” the government has “given priority to slow solutions”, deplores Greenpeace UK.
The new plan “supports new oil and gas licenses” in contradiction with the country’s climate objectives tackles the NGO, stressing that these new drillings “take an average of 28 years to start.”
“Madness” according to the UN
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called new investments in fossil fuels “economic and moral folly” in light of the climate emergency. But Kwasi Kwarteng is no longer hesitant to assert to the contrary that it would be “completely crazy” for the United Kingdom “to turn off the tap on its national source of gas in such an uncertain world.”
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, London announced the end of its imports of Russian oil by the end of the year, and if the country is less dependent on Russian hydrocarbons than other European countries, like Germany, oil and gas still weigh 75% of its energy mix.
Inflation pressure
Accused of inaction in the face of British forces forced to Choose between heating and food, Downing Street is under pressure, especially in the run-up to local elections in May. Kwasi Kwarteng admits that drilling more locally will not bring down gas prices, which follow international market prices. “So we need to generate more electricity in Britain” with renewables and nuclear, he insists.
Aging nuclear fleet
But if the United Kingdom plans to accelerate the development of the atom and to build eight new power plants thanks in particular to small modular reactors built by Rolls Royce, it will be necessary to be patient because they will still require years of development. Great Britain currently has 15 reactors on eight sites, but many are at the end of their life and Hinkley point, a project carried out by EDF and the Chinese CGN, has seen its costs soar and will not open before 2026.
Aiming for a 95% share of low-carbon electricity by 2030, London is also looking, in the longer term, towards the promising technology of “green” hydrogen and tidal energy. Conversely, hydraulic fracturing and onshore wind power will not have a central role because of “strong local opposition”, the Minister of Energy recently indicated.