01 October 2008
Britain has ranked 31 out of 35 major electricity generating countries for the amount of renewable energy produced, according to a major report.
Britain beat out Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland and Korea with its 4.3 per cent of total energy generation being green, notes the report Deploying Renewables: Principles for Effective Policies from the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
France produced 9.9 per cent of its generation from renewables, Japan 9.1 per cent, US 8.5 per cent, Australia 7.4 and Germany 10.1 per cent.
Leaders in renewables production as a share of total energy produced include New Zealand, Norway, Brazil, Sweden, Canada and Austria, mainly thanks to hydro-electric opportunities from rugged mountain areas.
The report says that the UK government's renewables strategy is "ineffective and very expensive".
Britain’s green energy costs around 13.5 US cents per kWhr over 20 years and registers 3 per cent on the IEA’s effectiveness indicator. This compares with below 10 cents and effectiveness of almost 12 per cent in Germany, according to the report’s author.
Little has been done since 2005, the year for which data is used.
Environmental group Greenpeace urged the Department for Business to ditch its obsession with coal and nuclear energy generation.
A goal of the G8, a grouping of major economic countries including Britain, is to halve carbon output by 2050.
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