Monday, October 19, 2009

Nick Clegg's The Liberal Moment: Chapter 6

The finishing post is in site as we get to the penultimate chapter. Nick has called it "The environmental crisis", but it avoids the worst of the "we're all doomed" rhetoric of the green movement.

It turns out to be an essay on how we bridge the lightly gap between future energy supply and demand without increasing CO2 emissions. Nick puts his money on a dispersed economy of renewable energy sources and micro generation, which is very appealing to Liberals, but raises two questions.

The first is whether these in themselves these measures will bridge the gap. Can we really do it with no role for nuclear power or coal?

The second is whether giving communities a stake in wind farms, as Nick advocates using a model already adopted in Denmark, will overcome local objections to the construction of more of them.

I would like to think Nick's liberal confidence is justified, but I have my doubts on both questions.

See also:
And you can download the whole pamphlet from Nick Clegg's website.

No comments: