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18 June 2008 - Great Britain is set to miss its own renewable energy target and will also fail to meet European Union requirements unless it steps up action substantially, a parliamentary report said.
The government has committed Britain to getting ten per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. Under an EU deal last year, it will have to quadruple that a decade later.
Great Britain currently gets less than five per cent of its electricity from renewables, mainly wind. And despite many positive words, a combination of planning restrictions and rising material prices makes it unlikely it will be doubled in just two years.
"We have been consistently disappointed by the lack of urgency expressed by the government -- and at times by the electricity industry -- in relation to the challenge ahead," said Phil Willis, head of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills select committee.
"We find it highly unlikely that given the current progress the UK will meet the government's ambition for 10 per cent of electricity to be generated from renewables by 2010, let alone sufficient electricity to meet the EC mandated renewable energy target for 2020."
EU environment ministers agreed in March last year that the 27-nation bloc had to get 20 per cent of its energy from renewables like wind, solar, waves and biomass by 2020.
In January this year it allocated national targets to achieve this general total. Britain, which has been trying to negotiate its share downwards, was told it would have to get 15 per cent of its energy from renewables.
Because electricity is the biggest single component of energy consumption, Britain's EU target is equivalent to getting about 40 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2020.
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