Originally blogged at Realclimategate

Who voted for Greenpeace at the last UK general election?

A simple rhetorical question for Mr Huhne, because in the Guardian/Observer it was reported that Greenpeace will be keeping an eye on things:

“Chris Huhne, the energy and climate secretary, said recently that “green” organisations such as Greenpeace would be asked to play a formal monitoring role to check that government was meeting its commitments.” – Observer, March 13 2011

Could I have a formal monitoring role please as well, could the readership of Bishop Hill?

All the Green’s seem a bit confused by the technicalities of an Energy Policy, they call for millions of electric cars? Where is all that EXTRA electricity to power them going to come from, windmills?

Greenpeace has strongly criticised a new government plan to cut carbon emissions, arguing that it neglects the field of green transport.

In a first intervention, Greenpeace says the new plan contains no mention of the target recommended by the government’s independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, for electric vehicles. The committee wanted a framework that would see 60% of vehicles powered by electricity by 2030 – about 11 million electric cars and 1.5 million vans.” – Observer, March 13 2011

Only the French with ~75% of electricity generated by nuclear will be able to say they have green electric cars. In the UK, power is predominantly provided by coal and gas, with some nuclear and ironically the French interconnector to the UK contributes more than all the UK’s wind turbines, especially on a windless day.

Todays national electricity contribution by wind is shown below…. (BMReports)

Yet in a sign that Mr Huhne seems to have no grasp of reality in the technological demands of electricity generation, he is lobbying EU member states to incresse the EU’s emmission targets to 30% from 20%.

Chris Huhne has won the support of six other European governments to push for a toughening of the EU’s climate targets, to be discussed in Brussels on Monday . The energy and climate secretary is spearheading a growing movement in favour of a target of 30% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, instead of the current 20%.

He will join his counterparts from Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Greece to argue for the higher target at a four-hour meeting of all 27 member states.

In a letter to the Guardian, Huhne and his fellow ministers say: “At a time when the price of oil is soaring, putting in place an ambitious p lan for Europe’s low-carbon future has wider benefits than tackling climate change. It will increase the continent’s resilience against oil price spikes and reduce its dependence on imported energy. And it will help Europe compete with emerging economies in the fast-growing markets for green goods and services.” – Observer, March 13 2011

Richard Tol has put the extra costs together for a 30% target..

“What Europe must not do is continue to barrel down a path that makes no economic sense. Yet it seems committed to its reckless course. The European Commission wants to toughen the carbon-reduction target to 30 per cent below 1990 levels – which Tol calculates would cost roughly £370 billion a year, twice as much as the existing plans. The effect, over the next 90 years, would be to reduce temperatures by an additional one-hundredth of a degree.” – Telegraph, July 02 2010

On a windless day, when the UK starts to have rolling blackouts in a few years, maybe the public will enquire why do we have lots of stationary wind turbines and only 19 nuclear reactors vs the French 59 nuclear reactors. Or is it not about emissions for some, but green politics.