MPs call for greater urgency with green targets

Legally-binding targets for green energy production in the UK may be "unrealistic", an influential committee of MPs has said in a report that is highly critical of the responsible department.

A "greater sense of urgency and purpose" is needed at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) to help meet targets which it agreed without "clear plans" of how they would be hit, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.

The UK signed up to a legally binding European Union target to supply 15 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020 when Labour leader Ed Miliband was Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

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PAC chairwoman Margaret Hodge MP said progress on renewable energy targets had been "unacceptably slow" over the last decade, highlighting that the proportion of the UK's electricity from renewables rose from 2.7 per cent in 2000 to just 6.7 per cent last year – "well short" of a 10 per cent target set for 2010 but which will not be delivered until 2012.

That raised doubts about the UK's ability to hit the 2020 EU target, she said, while longer term carbon reduction goals were also in doubt.

"New, and substantially more demanding, targets are now in place," Ms Hodge said.

"The department will have to have a greater sense of urgency and purpose if it is to achieve the dramatic increase in renewable energy supplies needed to meet them.

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"We are concerned that the department agreed to the legally binding EU target to supply 15 per cent of the UK's energy from renewable sources by 2020 without clear plans, targets for each renewable energy technology, estimates of funding required or understanding how the rate at which planning applications for onshore wind turbines were being rejected might affect progress.

"As for meeting the longer term 2050 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, the department has yet to set out the timescale against which innovations in renewable energy technology will be required."