Mike's Columns in the Portsmouth News
Copenhagen Summit and World Cup bid
Next week sees the start of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change. It is good news that President Obama has said that he will attend but bad news that, with half an eye on not being unpopular at home, he is only likely to set a low target for cutting America's own carbon emissions. But if America, Britain and other industrialised countries do not show leadership then countries such as India and China will question why they have to bother.
As 40% of carbon emissions come from generating electricity, Britain must move rapidly to renewable sources - solar, wind and wave which have almost zero carbon emissions. But while comparable European countries such as Germany and Spain are generating over a third of their electricity from these sources, we are stuck on a derisory 6%. And only 1 in 100, British homes meet good standards on energy efficiency. So, the Government must also support massive improvements in this.
Two-thirds of electricity is wasted at the power station or in transmitting it. So we need to generate much more electricity locally - close to where it is used - factories with their own wind turbine, houses with solar panels or blocks with combined heat and power schemes.
In short, we must bite the bullet on climate change. And last week Portsmouth City Council did just that on our bid to be a candidate host city for Britain's World Cup bid and decided to pull out. A tough and difficult decision for all those that had to make it. But the cost unfortunately on the council taxpayers would have been £24 million - over £300 per household. And that is just today's estimate! There would also have been substantial costs which would have been wasted if either the FA had not chosen Portsmouth or the British bid failed. I am sorry that there was not more financial support from the Government and from the FA which runs a very wealthy sport. But we have seen before the financial cost to the city of writing what are effectively blank cheques. From Climate Change to World Cup bids, politicians should act decisively for the long-term good even if that means some short-term unpopularity.
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