308 Energy andtransport for thefuture
mentioned that sustained growth of thirty per cent or more per year is
needed in wind and solar energy in order to meet the targets for 2020
set by carbon dioxide stabilisation scenarios (e.g. WEC scenario C). In-
creased growth in biomass sources is also necessary. This means that an
increasing and substantial fraction of capital investment in the energy
industry will have to go into new renewable sources. In the box below
are listed some of the policy instruments that need to be applied for this
revolution in the way we generate our energy to really get under way.
In a recent speech, Lord John Browne, the Group Chief Executive of
British Petroleum, has emphasised the importance of actively planning
for the long term. After explaining the steps to be taken to combat change
in the energy sector and the major investments that will be required he
goes on to say^64 :If such steps are to be taken, it is important to demonstrate the real value of
taking a long-term approach which transcends the gap in time between the
costs of investment and the delivery of the benefits. Political decisions are
often taken on a very short-term basis and the challenge is to demonstrate
the benefits of the actions which need to be taken for the long term...
The role of business is to transform the possibilities into reality. And that
means being severely practical – undertaking very focused research and
then experimentingwith the different possibilities. The advantage of the
fact that the energy business is now global is that international companies
can both access the knowledge around the world and can then apply it very
quickly throughout their operations.Nuclear energy
An energy source mentioned rather little so far is nuclear energy. It is
not strictly a renewable source, but it has considerable attractiveness
from the point of view of sustainable development because it does not
produce greenhouse gas emissions (apart from a small amount, which
is usedin making the materials employed in the construction of nuclear
power stations) and because the rate at which it uses up resources of
radioactive material is small compared to the total resource available.
It is only efficiently generated in large units, so is suitable for supply-
ing power to national grids or to large urban connurbations, but not
for small, more localised supplies. An advantage of nuclear energy in-
stallations is that the technology is known; they can be built now and
therefore contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the
short term. The cost of nuclear energy compared with energy from fos-
sil fuel sources is often a subject of debate; exactly where it falls in
relation to the others depends on the return expected on the up-front