WIREDGOV

Conservationists, industry and government must work together to find the right places for renewables, said Natural England recently welcoming the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy.

Sir Martin Doughty, Chair of Natural England said: “Climate change is the most significant long term threat facing the natural environment. This strategy provides a welcome stepping stone on the path to a low carbon future. The conservation sector must now work with industry and government to find space for renewables and to develop a longer term blueprint for a low carbon economy by 2050.”

England has some of the best resources for wind, wave and tidal energy in Europe. But these resources are often found where our landscapes are at their most valued and where nature thrives.

Sir Martin continued: “We don’t know what the relative impacts of this energy revolution will be so we cannot afford to simply take a least cost route to delivering it. We urgently need a strategic assessment of the options for achieving the renewable energy target. Only the government can ensure that this assessment happens in time and to the high standards that are required.”

Sir Martin concluded: “To turn this strategy into reality, the conservation sector may in some cases have to accept short term pain for long term gain. Difficult decisions need to be taken if we are going to get serious about tackling climate change.”

Notes for editors

1. For further information contact the Natural England press office on 0845 603 9953, press@naturalengland.org.uk out of hours 07970 098005.

2. Key points in Natural England’s response to the Renewable Energy Strategy are: We welcome the government’s commitment towards greater energy efficiency, as reducing energy consumption is environmentally benign and will help make the target achievable. We welcome the scaling up of wind energy both onshore and offshore, and want to work with government and industry to find the right places for new wind energy development.

We recognise that biomass driven heat and electricity generation could have a positive impact on the management, and replanting, of England’s woodlands and provide an effective market for agricultural and wood waste. It will also provide farmers with a valuable market for biomass materials.

We believe that the target will need to be delivered at all scales. Small scale community energy production has an important role to play in making rapid progress toward the UK renewables target while larger scale projects, with a much longer lead-in time, are developed.

We note that scaling up of biomass will require the sourcing of a vast amount of organic matter. We are concerned that, without robust environmental safeguards, this could lead to an exporting of environmental degradation overseas.

We note that the massive scaling up of biomass crop production could potentially see 1 million hectares taken out of food production, or more marginal land currently high in biodiversity forced into production.

We agree that wave and tidal power have an important role to play in the longer term but remain untested, fledgling technologies.

We believe that delivery of this strategy will require a significant upgrading of the transmission network, particularly to accommodate energy from the more remote areas of England being delivered to the urban areas which use most of it. Environmental impacts associated with any expansion of the grid will have to be assessed in the normal way.

3. Natural England is here to conserve and enhance the natural environment, for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people and the economic prosperity that it brings. Visit www.naturalengland.org.uk for more information on our work.