Green

Editors: Milo Dennison (senior); Katie Hulett, Siddiq Islam (section). oxstu.green@gmail.com

Great British Energy = Green British Energy? by Milo Dennison

Last month’s Labour Party Conference saw Sir Keir Starmer unveil a radically transformative new energy policy, aiming to nationalise Britain’s energy supply. If elected, a Labour government would introduce a national energy firm called Great British Energy. This policy comes at a critical moment whereby consumers are met with great conflict; alarming and often unaffordable increases in their energy bills on one hand, and an increasingly urgent focus on the climate and sustainability on the other. This policy could therefore be hugely significant for the UK’s energy landscape, but what will the implications be for the climate, and what lessons can be learnt from other national energy firms? A key distinction to consider when contemplating Great British Energy is that it is designed to act as a competitor alongside the incumbent market, providing ad-

Why the Rainy Country can have Drought

by Siddiq Islam

ditional capacity, rather than simply aiming to nationalise energy supplies. Similarities can therefore be drawn with companies like the Swedish Vattenfall or French EDF, given that both operate as state owned companies but compete in a liberalised energy market against private firms. In fact, the UK is currently an outlier in not having a state owned power company, whereas the vast majority of large European countries do. The importance of a state-owned energy firm to a country like the UK can be difficult to determine, particularly in terms of ensuring that Britain has green energy. Currently,the UK has the largest pipeline in the world for offshore wind farm projects, outcompeting everywhere but China in capacity Analysts point out that Britain is currently flooded with investment in solar and wind power and private investors are beginning to realise the importance of renewable energy, suggesting that investment in green energy isn’t a bottleneck for expanding infrastructure and capacity. In fact, it’s predicted that by 2030 wind and solar together should make up 70 to 80% of the UK’s electricity generation. What then is the importance of Great British Energy to the environment? It comes in those final few percentage points, which must be converted to renewable energy sources if Britain is to truly have completely renewable energy. To achieve this, higher risk investment opportunities may have to be operationalised , including tidal, hydrogen and nuclear. Whether this is because they are emerging undeveloped technologies or simply difficult to finance due to their scale, these technologies are far less desirable to private investors and require a much higher risk appetite. This is where Great British Energy

Britons bathe in their hatred for the rain. It rains so bloody much that it is a well-established part of British culture to complain about it. Every time I return from a sunny holiday abroad, the

English heavens seem to open up to greet me. So for many it will have come as a surprise to see drought in our wet, wet home nations over the summer. When usually we ache for prolonged spells of dry weather, we now must pray for prolonged showers to help reverse the effects. Some of us will recall feeling shocked when a hosepipe ban was enforced in 2012 for two months. For many of us this was the first time as kids we realised that the UK could experience drought. Back then, though, it was a freak occurrence, some unlikely special event, just could come in. As a state-owned business, it would have a much higher risk tolerance than projects funded by private investors can realistically have. This would enable it to invest in the kind of projects that are needed to complete Britain’s transition to renewable energy. In the process this would build Britain up as a world leader, or as Starmer put it a “superpower”, in renewable energy sources. The importance of this is hard to overstate: as a result of its skill in nuclear power, EDF has a massive international business in it, controlling all five currently operating UK nuclear power stations. Starmer’s hope is that one day Great British Energy could have the same market presence but for renewable technologies, extending Britain’s reach worldwide. All this is certainly ambitious, but with many political and practical issues still unresolved, the time-

like the Olympic games that year. Ten years later, we once again find ourselves turning off hoses to save our rivers and ponds, but this time it comes against the backdrop of a global climate crisis and the whole of Europe simultaneously experiencing droughts and wildfires. What we have faced this year is called a meteorological drought, meaning it is caused by the lack of rain we have received recently. Last winter was the driest since 1976 (the most famous drought year in the UK), and July 2022 was the driest July in England since 1935, according to the Met Office. Given it’s autumn now, it would be reasonable to presume the drought is over. Drought is strictly a summer thing, right? Unfortunately not: whilst some life has returned to the grass in our local parks, recent rains have done little to refill most rivers and reservoirs. Much of the country (including Oxford) remains under a hosepipe ban as we enter October, and if water usage is not controlled through the winter, the water shortages will continue into 2023. Whilst hosepipe bans wash a tenth off of our water demand, far more water is lost to leaks in pipes across the country. Billions of litres are line Starmer has set may be challenging. He plans to launch the company within his first year of government, yet this urgency is vital. Action on the climate must happen fast and Great British Energy has the potential to position Britain at the forefront of the green energy revolution and hence the fight against climate change. Policies like this will not only help the environment but also help Britain take advantage of the huge investment opportunities that renewable technologies present.

Image credits: Yii-Jen Deng

leaked each day. Factories such as the Beckton desalination plant in East London (which could supply drinkable water to a million Londoners daily, if actually switched on) can help the situation, but it is clear that much more infrastructure must be put in place if drought is to become a more common state in the UK. Our perception of Britain as wet and miserable is why we remain deluded about the reality of drought in this country. Too often the British sit at home thinking that floods are for Asia, droughts are for Africa, and wildfires are for America, but as the climate crisis worsens and extreme weather becomes more common all over the globe, the effects of global warming will inevitably reach even this isolated island. As we continue to heat the planet, droughts will become more commonplace, alongside extreme rainfall – which, as this summer has shown us, does not immediately counteract the effects. As difficult as it is to believe, Britain becomes ever more likely to start running out of water.

Image credits: Yii-Jen Deng