Energy bills 'too low' to combat climate change, Royal Society says | Environment | The Guardian

Energy bills 'too low' to combat climate change, Royal Society says | Environment | The Guardian: "Energy bills 'too low' to combat climate change

Royal Society report says current government policy is not enough to pay for green technology

* Alok Jha
* The Guardian, Monday 29 June 2009
* Article history

Electricity meter

Electricity meter. Photograph: David Sillitoe

Consumers will need to pay more for energy if the UK is to have any chance of developing the technologies needed to tackle climate change, according to a group of leading scientists and engineers.

In a Royal Society study to be published today, the experts said that the government must put research into alternatives to fossil fuel much higher among its priorities, and argued that current policy in the area was 'half-hearted'.

'We have adapted to an energy price which is unrealistically low if we're going to try and preserve the environment,' John Shepherd, a climate scientist at Southampton University and co-author of the report said. 'We have to allow the economy to adapt to higher energy prices through carbon prices and that will then make things like renewables and nuclear more economic, as carbon-based alternatives become more expensive.'"