What is the difference between renewable and low-carbon energy? And does it matter?

19th Sep 2016

 

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee’s recent report into 2020 renewable heat and transport targets gave the industry an insight into the thinking of policymakers, which we should consider. Not least because it is clear they cast doubts on existing government policy, so we must be prepared for change.

Central to the report, but ironically not really considered, is the desirability of the 2020 renewable target. The do define “renewable energy” in an easy to understand way – “derived from natural processes and replenished more rapidly than expended”. They do point out the overlap between renewable and low-carbon energy and say that not all renewables are low-carbon, neither is all low-carbon renewable. The question I would ask of the policymakers is, does it matter and if so, why?

I suggest it does matter. And here is why I think so.

If climate change is the key target to be addressed and by that we mean carbon dioxide emissions, then low-carbon should be the priority. Whether an energy form is renewable or not, should be a secondary consideration. We should remind ourselves that the 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive gave us a “legal” requirement for 15 per cent of energy to be from renewable sources by 2020, with “indicative targets” for its component parts – transport 10; electricity generation 30; heat 12.

The committee concluded that on its current course the UK will fail to achieve its 2020 targets and that this would be an “unacceptable outcome given the UK’s reputation for climate change leadership”. Here they have fallen into the trap of conflating the two issues. The UK will demonstrate climate change leadership when it decarbonises at a faster pace than others – not by achieving renewable targets, because as the committee itself acknowledges, not all renewables are low carbon. It would be a perverse outcome for the UK if, in striving to achieve a 2020 renewable target, it compromises on the achievement of real carbon reduction outcomes. Stressing the need to deliver low-carbon targets rather than renewable ones, would indeed be real leadership in the world.