Quite regardless of what you think about the risks from carbon emissions and climate change, freeing Britain from excessive dependence on imported oil and gas is an urgent national necessity.
We simply can’t go on like this, being massively and increasingly exposed to fluctuations in price and security of supply – especially when the oil and gas comes largely from the Middle East, Russia and North Africa. These are hardly parts of the world on which you would want to be most dependent.
But moving from where we are to a low-carbon economy doesn’t mean going back to living like monks in the Middle Ages. It means using sensible modern technologies. That way, we can sustain our quality of life without being overly dependent on imported hydro-carbons.
Lots of the action has to lie with government. Only government can bring about the building of a smart grid, a high-speed rail system and a network of charging points for plug-in hybrid cars.
Some of the rest of what needs to be done depends on the big businesses of Britain. Whether it is producing the plug-in hybrid cars to plug into the charging points, or operating a high-speed rail system or managing a smart grid, only big business can do it.
But there is also an enormous part that has to be played by individuals and communities at a much more local level.
If all the farms and all the local authorities in this country used their waste to feed bio-digesters, the national grid estimates that we could produce about 40% of our heating gas just from those two sources.
And it is individuals, not government or big businesses, that need to make the choices – to buy the plug-in hybrid cars, to travel on the high-speed trains, to save money by insulating homes and replacing inefficient boilers, and in short to do sensible and cost-effective things that also contribute to the decarbonisation of our economy.
In other words, this isn’t a question of either/or. It is a question of both/and.
Government, big businesses, communities and individuals all need to play a part. The crucial point is that we shouldn’t think of this as a series of terrible sacrifices in order to insure ourselves against an uncertain risk.
What we need to do is simply to take advantage nationally, commercially, communally and individually of the big gains that modern technology has opened up for us. There’s a bright, low-carbon future out there. We just have to grab it.