Wrong said CRed

Environmental campaigners at the

have criticised the Government’s 2006 energy policy consultation document 'Our Energy Challenge'.

In its official response, the UEA-based Community Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed) argued that the only way to make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions is by embarking on a major drive to cut waste, reduce demand and increase focus on innovation and renewable energy.

CRed said a resource-efficient economy based on distributed and local power generation would be far cheaper than building new generating capacity, particularly nuclear power. It would also be more secure and resilient to fossil fuel price and supply shocks.

It also said that long-term energy supply must depend primarily on renewables that can provide energy at all scales down to a single building. The cost of renewable energy is falling and will continue to fall, whereas the price of fossil fuels will continue to rise. CRed argued that this is already understood by the market place, citing the fact that installed wind power capacity has grown by 28 per cent worldwide year on year from 2000 to 2004.