According to the UK Independence Party website UKIP will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:

8.1 We are no longer self-sufficient in energy. Our coal industry has been reduced to a fraction of its previous size despite our large coal reserves. Dominance of coal in electricity generation was replaced by the ‘dash for gas’. UK gas and oil production is now in decline, and our precarious reliance on imported fossil fuels is set to increase further over the next few years as existing nuclear generating capacity is reduced by scheduled closures (Appendix A). World energy supplies will become more expensive and security of supply less certain.

8.2 Unless things change radically and quickly, lengthy power cuts will become commonplace, a disastrous situation not least because of our widespread dependence on electronic systems. Under the EU Common Energy Policy, and with further surrender of energy and transport policies in the latest EU Constitution (‘Amending Treaty’), the UK would depend on whatever share of ‘community resources’ it is allocated.

8.3 The Government’s recent White Paper on Energy addresses two main objectives: security of energy supplies, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It suggests that global energy demand in 2030 will be 50% higher than now (though we think that it could be very much higher than this). UKIP agrees with the first objective, security of energy supply, though how this would be achieved is not disclosed in the White Paper.

On the second objective, the contribution of anthropogenic gases to global warming is less clear-cut than the Government recognises. Pending upgraded data, we would not allow greenhouse gas emission targets to dominate our policies. However, we should reduce dependence on fossil fuels as a conservation and anti-pollution measure, and this would have the concomitant effect of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

8.4 The Government’s 2007 Draft Climate Change Bill intends to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 (compared to 1990), with an interim target of a 26-32% reduction by 2020. The Bill includes a system of ‘carbon budgets’ to meet the requirements of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and predicates profound controls over both economic activity and individual lifestyles. It allows the UK Government to purchase unlimited carbon credits from foreign countries – yet the complexities and potential deceptions involved in such arrangements are totally unsatisfactory.

In a press release (published 2 August 2007) accompanying publication of their Report, the Joint Committee of the House of Commons and House of Lords on the Draft Climate Change Bill pronounced that: ‘ … the Bill raises profound issues about the relationship between government and Parliament, as well as unprecedented questions about the scope and effectiveness of domestic legislation’. They went on to ask: ‘… where legal responsibility for fulfilling the Bill’s core purpose of carbon reduction lies, and how it can be enforced?’ and ‘… what are the limits of domestic legislation in tackling what is, by any definition, an international issue whose nature and impact is still only partially understood?’

8.5 UKIP thinks that adoption of rigid targets on carbon dioxide emissions by the UK is inappropriate, and that the cost of measures seeking to achieve these targets cannot be justified in the absence of clear evidence that such emissions are the major contributor to global warming. The EU, being in total control of energy policy under the rehashed Constitution, can implement futile targets regardless of their impact on UK citizens. This is profoundly undemocratic.

I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Independence Party’s UK Energy Challenge policies in the comments below?