ABSTRACT

A key challenge in the current energy markets is to provide fuel security to populations, to ensure that the lights stay on even in the most extreme conditions. It is this increasingly difficult challenge that is ostensibly driving governments around the world back into the arms of the toxic, expensive, nuclear industry and to the drawing boards with a new generation of polluting coal-fired power stations. However, many are deeply concerned that the plans being promoted by governments are simply not stacking up. This was the conclusion of the Oxford University task force report in June 2007. Chaired by Lord Patten of Barnes, the report claimed that the UK policy was a hotchpotch of measures that would not deliver on security, would not deliver on climate change and would not serve the poorest in our societies. 1