An honest move from a politician can be a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy fog of misleading claptrap. Still, there was something too darn honest about the way in which Putin marked his ascendancy to a prestigious role on the world stage chair of the G8 by exercising his most potent tool and limiting his countrys energy exports. The statement from UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks that the situation posed "no immediate threat" to UK supplies was of a more usual order, being true, strictly speaking, but failing to engage with the wider issues raised by the crisis. Indeed, UK concerns over gas supplies have been bubbling away for months: only days before Russias move the Daily Mail saw out 2005 with the speculative headline of £1000 a year power bills as prices soar.
While Russia will certainly not be the only source for the 80% of gas imports that the UK is expected to rely on by 2020, it is expected to provide the EU with half its gas imports by 2020 and is a key industry player. In this knowledge, as he stepped up to the G8 chair, Putin declared that energy issues are at the top of his agenda. This may be an enlightening sequel to last years G8 focus on climate change. After all, that agenda was never going to get far while it skirted around the fact that patterns of energy use are at the root of humanitys contribution to unprecedented atmospheric changes. G8 action such as funding low energy light bulbs in poorer countries was all well and good. However, the issue of decreasing availability of cheap energy supplies - and thus the need to fundamentally re-structure patterns of energy use never lost its place as the proverbial elephant in the corner.
The UKs Energy Review, due to report this summer, does aim to address the question of how to diversify energy supplies away from fossil fuels. This is likely to include such unimaginative proposals as an expansion of nuclear power - a costly and dirty technology that can only ever meet a limited amount of energy demand anyway. An equally valid question on energy is not just how to diversify, but how to reduce demand in the first place. For example, even if we blindfold ourselves to the controversy around biofuel production and decide to run our cars on this alternative and superficially less polluting fuel, the energy needed to make cars in the first place will increasingly be prohibitively expensive. And increasingly expensive fossil fuels are still needed to manufacture the components for machines that generate renewable energy.
The sooner we start working out how best to shift from a high energy consumption world to a low energy one, the less painful the transition will be. The sooner we engage with this energy descent, the less likely it is that the end result will be bleak. Indeed, Rob Hopkins, a ground-breaking promoter of Energy Descent Action Plans, sees it as quite the opposite, describing it as an opportunity for great inventiveness. Hopkins helped draw up an Energy Descent Action Plan for the town of Kinsale in Ireland. He describes the Plan as a timetable by which Kinsale can begin putting in place the elements it will need in order to navigate the troubled waters ahead a roadmap to sustainability, to localisation, to abundance. Hopkins is now refining the model of Energy Descent Action Plans to apply them anywhere. He aims to develop grassroots-led responses to the inevitable transition that will come as energy problems intensify.
Hopkins work is strongly concerned with the nature of the culture in which we operate, and in which we envision a possible future. For energy descent involves more fundamental thinking than is likely to be found in the terms of the UKs Energy Review, or in an Energy Ministers response to Russias turning of the gas tap. Energy descent has to include a re-think of most aspects of our lives. While the work of pioneers such as Hopkins currently lacks the global profile of Putins energy strategy, or the lobbying power of the nuclear industry, it has an integrity that is difficult to beat - and a potential that is difficult to resist.
An honest move from a politician can be a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy fog of misleading claptrap. Still, there was something too darn honest about the way in which Putin marked his ascendancy to a prestigious role on the world stage chair of the G8 by exercising his most potent tool and limiting his countrys energy exports. The statement from UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks that the situation posed "no immediate threat" to UK supplies was of a more usual order, being true, strictly speaking, but failing to engage with the wider issues raised by the crisis. Indeed, UK concerns over gas supplies have been bubbling away for months: only days before Russias move the Daily Mail saw out 2005 with the speculative headline of £1000 a year power bills as prices soar.
While Russia will certainly not be the only source for the 80% of gas imports that the UK is expected to rely on by 2020, it is expected to provide the EU with half its gas imports by 2020 and is a key industry player. In this knowledge, as he stepped up to the G8 chair, Putin declared that energy issues are at the top of his agenda. This may be an enlightening sequel to last years G8 focus on climate change. After all, that agenda was never going to get far while it skirted around the fact that patterns of energy use are at the root of humanitys contribution to unprecedented atmospheric changes. G8 action such as funding low energy light bulbs in poorer countries was all well and good. However, the issue of decreasing availability of cheap energy supplies - and thus the need to fundamentally re-structure patterns of energy use never lost its place as the proverbial elephant in the corner.
The UKs Energy Review, due to report this summer, does aim to address the question of how to diversify energy supplies away from fossil fuels. This is likely to include such unimaginative proposals as an expansion of nuclear power - a costly and dirty technology that can only ever meet a limited amount of energy demand anyway. An equally valid question on energy is not just how to diversify, but how to reduce demand in the first place. For example, even if we blindfold ourselves to the controversy around biofuel production and decide to run our cars on this alternative and superficially less polluting fuel, the energy needed to make cars in the first place will increasingly be prohibitively expensive. And increasingly expensive fossil fuels are still needed to manufacture the components for machines that generate renewable energy.
The sooner we start working out how best to shift from a high energy consumption world to a low energy one, the less painful the transition will be. The sooner we engage with this energy descent, the less likely it is that the end result will be bleak. Indeed, Rob Hopkins, a ground-breaking promoter of Energy Descent Action Plans, sees it as quite the opposite, describing it as an opportunity for great inventiveness. Hopkins helped draw up an Energy Descent Action Plan for the town of Kinsale in Ireland. He describes the Plan as a timetable by which Kinsale can begin putting in place the elements it will need in order to navigate the troubled waters ahead a roadmap to sustainability, to localisation, to abundance. Hopkins is now refining the model of Energy Descent Action Plans to apply them anywhere. He aims to develop grassroots-led responses to the inevitable transition that will come as energy problems intensify.
Hopkins work is strongly concerned with the nature of the culture in which we operate, and in which we envision a possible future. For energy descent involves more fundamental thinking than is likely to be found in the terms of the UKs Energy Review, or in an Energy Ministers response to Russias turning of the gas tap. Energy descent has to include a re-think of most aspects of our lives. While the work of pioneers such as Hopkins currently lacks the global profile of Putins energy strategy, or the lobbying power of the nuclear industry, it has an integrity that is difficult to beat - and a potential that is difficult to resist.
__For more on Energy Descent and related issues see www.transitionculture.org__