'We need to produce as much home-grown energy as possible'

By Alex Forbes

Humankind can rise to the challenge of mitigating climate change, but businesses will need to play a major role if we are to succeed. The EU is right to set over-arching targets for emissions reductions but should resist the temptation to meddle in the details of member states’ national policies. And UK energy policy under the new coalition government is likely to continue moving along the tracks that were laid by Labour.These are some of the views of Malcolm Wicks, former Minister for Energy (twice) and Science Minister and currently Labour MP in the UK. As ‘special representative on global energy issues’ for former prime minister Gordon Brown, the highly experienced Wicks wrote a report concluding that Europe is underestimating the risks of energy insecurity and needs to produce ‘as much home-grown energy as possible’. EER-correspondent Alex Forbes caught up with him at the recent World Energy Congress in Montreal and had a fascinating exchange of views with him about global, European and UK energy issues.

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