UK WANTS MORE RENEWABLES

It's true. Britain's Climate Change minister, Greg Barker, has called for the EU to adopt much tougher emissions targets.

Currently, the UK is signed up to a legally-binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions by 20% against 1990 levels by the end of this decade. Greg Barker expects the UK "comfortably to exceed" its current 20% target, although much of this has to do with the enlightened and progressive approach taken by the Scottish Parliament, which is aiming to get 100% of Scotland's electricity from renewables by 2020. If Scotland were to vote "Yes" to independence in 2014, it could be that England and Wales would need to act pretty fast to ensure that the government meets its 2020 target.

Even so, the UK is backing calls from France and Germany for the European Union to impose a target of 30% emissions reductions by 2020. Much of Europe is quite keen on this tougher target, with the only real opposition coming from Poland. Poland relies heavily on fossil fuels - coal in particular - for its energy (and there is a direct link between Poland's coal-fired power stations and Lord Lawson's attempts to pretend that there is no climate change problem via his shady "Global Warming Policy Foundation"). But if Poland can be brought into line, then by the end of this year the EU-wide target for reductions of carbon emissions by 2020 could be 30% - which would be a big step forwards.

The question then becomes, how is the UK planning on cutting its emissions by so much?

The likelihood of new nuclear power stations coming online by 2020 is minimal. Besides which, non-renewable nuclear is very much the high-risk (and phenomenally expensive) low-carbon source. Gas is already becoming extremely expensive - one of the reasons why Denmark is altering its economy and infrastructure to achieve 50% of its energy from renewables by 2020, a move which has support across the political spectrum - and recent announcements suggest that gas is about to get a whole lot more expensive for the consumer.

Which just leaves renewables. Not only are some renewables - like onshore wind - pretty cheap, but there is enormous flexibility in the renewables approach. A combination of community wind power and solar schemes, individual turbines for farms and small businesses, solar farms, utility-scale windfarms (onshore and off), and the introduction of a smart grid would add up to a major change in the way the UK generates much, if not all, of its electricity. Hydroelectric schemes will also have much to offer (although falling river levels could be a problem), and wave and tidal schemes could prove to be a major boon, while energy efficiency measures will play a huge part in reducing emissions. The real trick is likely to be a broad mix of renewables, including small-scale private and community developments (which account for most of Germany's world-class renewables industry) and major developments, including the large-scale offshore windfarms planned for the Bristol Channel and the south coast.

The problem, of course, is the British pestilence that is nimbyism. Sooner or later, someone or other objects to more-or-less anything. Where wind energy is concerned, the objection is almost invariably one of alleged loss of "visual amenity" - indeed, if the nimbies were honest (which few of them are) they would admit that this is the only objection to wind turbines, and that all the other false claims about wind power are a desperate exercise in clutching at straws.

The "visual amenity" issue is not a given. Many people really do like wind turbines, while many others are simply in touch with reality and recognise the need for them. Which leaves just a hardcore of blinkered refuseniks willing to tell any lie and to bully anyone they think they can get away with bullying in order to stop a valid, valuable and beneficial windfarm development in its tracks because they think it might spoil "their" view.

These people are not only the enemies of science and democracy, the national economic and environmental interest, their own communities and the planet - they will soon be the enemies of the British government, which has woken up to the economic potential of clean technology. Ironic, really, seeing as most nimbies are likely to have voted for the right-of-centre politicians who are now pursuing tougher targets on emissions reduction. But if the UK and its allies do manage to get the tougher 30% target adopted by the EU, then the nimby fools will be at odds with the very people they hoped would "save" them from a modest requirement to do their bit.

This will also mean that there is an increasing need to press ahead with sensibly-sited renewable developments regardless of the stupid actions and ridiculous blather of the local nimbies. But this needn't bother us. After all, the nimbies have a decidedly conditional notion of democracy, and those who play by their undemocratic rules should face the consequences. Furthermore, the claim that a view which you do not own is more important that the interests of the economy and the environment, of the community, the nation and future generations, deserves to be pointedly disregarded. It is the sort of thing that shows the obsessively self-centred nature of the majority of nimbies (which in turn accounts for the awful things they say and do), and there is no place for such excessive levels of selfishness, ignorance and intolerance in a healthy society.

Let's hope that the UK does get its way, and the EU adopts a more stringent legally-binding target for cardon reductions. And let's hope that the country then turns against the nimby menace and all those self-important anti-wind loonies with their incessant lies. It's vital that we as a nation get to grips with the 21st century and move bravely towards a sustainable future. Those who remain determined to stand in the way of this because it might impact on their view must be recognised as the self-serving traitors and fools that they are.