At this perilous moment, we are faced with three interlocking energy crises. An energy security crisis, with the invasion of Ukraine demonstrating to Europe that it must wean itself off Russian gas and oil, and quickly. A price crisis of soaring, sky-high bills. And the climate crisis, which the UN warned just last month is even more advanced and dangerous than we thought.
Some will say we cannot confront all three together. There are voices on the right of politics already growing louder, saying it’s necessary to sacrifice or slow down our climate ambitions so we can lock in energy security.
But they are profoundly wrong. Doubling down on fossil fuels, for example, through a fracking-style dash for gas which some on the Conservative benches are proposing, would be a disastrous response to each of these crises.
For starters, what is the quickest way to get us off Russian gas and allow us control over our own energy supply? By pressing ahead with building the 649 onshore wind and solar projects that already have planning permission in the UK. They could come on stream within two years and would fully replace Russian gas imports, but are being held back by the de-facto moratorium imposed by the government in 2015, when it introduced draconian planning restrictions for new windfarms and cut onshore windfarms off from investment in renewables. Fracking would take at least a decade to arrive, as the prime minister was warned this week by his own business secretary, and the average time between new exploration and production in the North Sea is 28 years.
It’s the same story on price. The lowest-cost fuels available are now wind and solar. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices spiralling further, generating energy from gas was four times more expensive than new solar or wind. And because we operate in an integrated gas market, we pay the same price for gas from domestic sources as we do for imports. Of course, the North Sea will continue to play a role as we transition to net zero, but whatever the level of our domestic supply, it cannot be immune from international price shocks.
Fracking was halted because it was considered too dangerous by Conservative ministers. And on climate, the case the UK made at Cop26 was that the world needed to get off fossil fuels. That is indeed the central challenge of net zero. The idea that reverting to business as usual is somehow consistent with tackling the climate crisis is therefore nonsense.
There is only one way to meet all three crises of security, price and climate together: to not slow down on the drive towards zero carbon, but to turn the current saunter into a sprint.
It is time to finally take seriously the Cinderella of this government’s energy policy, which is home insulation and energy efficiency – because the best way of reducing our demand for fossil fuels is to reduce energy demand overall.
Upgrading the 19m cold, draughty British homes would cut energy bills by an average of £400 every year and our gas imports by 15%. But home insulation rates have plummeted over the past decade, and emissions from buildings are as high now as they were in 2015.
We need to push further and faster on every form of renewables. Get rid of the moratorium on onshore wind. Reignite the push towards solar power that I started when I was the energy secretary, but which was stamped out by government policy in 2015. Embrace tidal power and hydrogen.
Finally, nuclear power needs to play a supporting role in the energy mix. The independent Climate Change Committee says that new nuclear stations are needed to achieve our net zero targets. During my time as the energy secretary, I identified the potential sites for new nuclear plants, but 12 years on the government has not completed any new nuclear stations. We should set a clear deadline on financial close for Sizewell C.
There is no mystery as to why the government has so comprehensively failed on energy efficiency: it is the product of piecemeal, outsourced and underfunded schemes. We simply cannot achieve energy efficiency and the rapid switch to heat pumps, for example, without substantial public investment.
That investment – as everyone from the OBR to the IMF will tell you – is the responsible economic choice. It is why Labour has committed £6bn a year to energy efficiency over the next decade as part of our groundbreaking £28bn a year climate investment pledge. We don’t have time for more of the government’s ideologically driven failure, nor their failure to take on the deniers on their backbenches. They play the climate hokey-cokey and we end up with climate delay.
Remember the onshore wind ban was put in by David Cameron in response to unhappy backbenchers. They were no doubt inspired by a guy called Boris Johnson, who said in 2013 that wind turbines wouldn’t “pull the skin off a rice pudding” and that fracking was a better answer. The same double-speak cannot be allowed to happen again on the false premise that a new dash for gas through fracking might answer today’s challenges.
Fossil fuels are not the answer to a fossil fuel crisis. We need a clean energy sprint to tackle the climate crisis, the cost of living crisis, and our energy security crisis together. This is the route to national energy independence and sovereignty. Business as usual just won’t do. The safest route is to go big, go green, go bold and go fast.
Ed Miliband is the Labour MP for Doncaster North and is the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero
