The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s energy strategy: missed opportunities

theguardian.com:

A few weeks after the November Cop26 summit concluded in Glasgow, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published a striking snapshot of public attitudes towards the climate emergency. It showed that popular support for renewable energy, including onshore wind farms, had reached record levels. Given a cost-of-living crunch caused by the rocketing price of fossil fuels, and the new priority of energy independence following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an imaginative and proactive government would move to harness this enthusiasm and seize the moment. Sadly, Britain is not blessed with such a government.

The future energy strategy unveiled by Boris Johnson on Thursday instead carries some of the hallmarks of his flawed government: a prime ministerial penchant for grands projets that may or may not be deliverable; a tendency to be unduly influenced by vocal lobby groups on the right of the Conservative party; and a propensity to set targets without doing the necessary work to enable them to be met. The aspiration that 95% of the UK’s electricity should come from renewable sources by 2030 is admirable, and the commitment to hugely increase offshore wind and solar capacity is significant. But inexplicable lacunae and wrong priorities make this a tale of missed opportunities.

The government has placed nuclear power at the heart of its approach, promising that as many as eight new reactors will be built. The realpolitik of meeting net zero targets means that nuclear, as a least worst option, should be part of the future energy mix. But the scale of Mr Johnson’s ambition represents a hugely expensive long-term gamble, the funding of which is conveniently buried somewhere in the long grass. According to the