Greenpeace Policies To Save The Planet And What I Think Of Them

Recently a group of Greenpeace protestors climbed onto the roof of the Palace of Westminster to "call for a new style of politics in Britain". I have to admit, my first thought was 'what are these crazy eco warriors causing such a fuss about?' So I went on the Greenpeace website and found out.

Their full manifesto is here, I have paraphrased most of it in italics below and added what I think of their ideas for what it's worth:

1. Zero Carbon emissions from the UK power sector by 2030. Zero?? Umm isn't that just a little bit unrealistic. You couldn't even run the greenpeace website on zero carbon emissions, let alone a country. If anyone from Greenpeace can point out where in the Committee on Climate Change document it says this is possible please let me know.
2. Cut Coal - stop new coal power stations being built. I agree in principle, but not sure the alternatives are viable just yet.
3. Cut emissions by 42% by 2020. From what I have read so far on emission reductions, the country will be lucky to meet the current 20% targets.
4. Insulate Britain. Yes good idea.
5. Fair financing to pay for developing countries low carbon development. Isn't China now one of the main contributers of CO₂ at the moment though,  and aren't they wealthy enough to pay for their own low carbon energy?
6. Repower Britain - make sure 15% of UK energy comes from renewables by 2020. This seems possible, if people stop moaning about how ugly wind farms, and prepare for a lot more in the countryside.
7. Rewire Britain - make sure the electric grid is upgraded to harness wind power. I know nothing about this, I will put it on my to-do list.
8. Curb Aviation - stop Heathrows third runway. Hmm sounds like a good idea, but isn't it actually necessary for the country's economy to grow? I mean, people don't just go around building runways to annoy Greenpeace. If we thought this way 50 years ago, we'd still be landing in fields. But I suppose we didn't know about climate change then.
9. Invest in Britain - research and development of low carbon technologies. This is a great idea, I see no reason why any funding from traditional power research sources can't be directed to this area.
10. Bank on green - set up a bank to lend to low carbon projects. Yes we should get those nasty bankers to do something useful instead of making the world collapse and us all loose our jobs.
11. Issue green bonds - investers and savers help fund green projects. Sounds good to me, if I had any money I would surely invest in them.
12. Reform taxation - refocus taxes onto pollution. This again sounds like good sense, if we hit the highly polluting energy companies where it hurts, they will be forced into diversifying into greener energy.

At a rough count I disagree with them on 3.5 points. So maybe they aren't a load of nutty eco maniacs after all. Well done Greenpeace!

Published - Thu 15th Oct 2009 20:55:58