Energy Bill

I understand that Herr Scheer was referring to the civil sector. I accept my hon. Friend's point that there has been a lot of blurring of the lines between the civil and military sectors. That could not possibly happen again, but let us just watch what happens in Iran and learn a few lessons from it. I have a great deal of time for Herr Scheer, who has helped to pioneer the German approach. Let us consider time scales. I utterly reject the claim that those who are concerned with climate change are forgoing this golden opportunity. The intergovernmental panel on climate change says that by 2015 carbon emissions must have peaked and must then be reduced. There is not a great deal that any new technology could do to meet that demand, but Germany's renewables Act, which was introduced a decade ago, propelled, to a great extent, by Hermann Scheer, has delivered so much in 10 years—one just needs to examine the figures to see that. If we had approached even 5 or 10 per cent. of the German effort in 10 years, we would be taking a rather more sanguine view about that 2015 target. Thus, I reject the accusations being made in this place that anyone who speaks against nuclear power is somehow complicit in the continuing tragedy of climate change. It must also be said—some hon. Members have mentioned this—that in that period of time the Germans have created 300,000 jobs and an export industry in renewable technologies worth €2 billion a year. They have also saved €5 billion on avoided fossil fuel imports, so there has been a net benefit to the German economy of €7 billion. My hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Mr. Reed) mentioned the role of the IAEA. At the Bali climate change conference last month, I was compelled to attend an IAEA seminar, not least because its title was ““Nuclear power and sustainable development””. I wondered how it would be able to explain that oxymoron. It was hosted by that august organisation, which at the time said that it was its job to arrange such things; it not only regulates but promotes. A map of Africa, the poorest continent on the planet, was displayed, and we were told that those countries were apparently queuing up to purchase nuclear power. People were in there trying to sell the damn thing. A Dr. Ferenc Toth—not toff—from the IAEA gave us a rundown of the 11 reasons why it thought that nuclear power had suffered so much in the past 20 years. In the order that he gave them, the reasons were that nuclear power had been hit by the following: economic restructuring; increased energy-efficiency measures after the oil shocks; slower demand; excess capacity; liberalisation and privatisation; the oil price collapse—if the price goes up, nuclear collapses, but if the price goes down, it also collapses; the dash for gas; the Three Mile Island disaster; and high interest rates. Tenth on the list was the little word ““Chernobyl””. Finally, he said that nuclear had been hit by the break-up of the Soviet Union. It seems that any kind of economic uncertainty or economic condition could lead to the downfall of nuclear power. I ask the proselytisers for nuclear power to explain how they anticipate a stable economic period when these nuclear power stations can be delivered occurring, given the current economic circumstances. I cannot foresee such a period myself. As has been mentioned, the UK has a low ranking—in the EU only Luxembourg and Malta are behind us—on the amount of renewable energy that it contributes to its energy requirements. Our figure is 1.75 per cent. of our overall contribution, which is rather less than the EU average of 7 per cent. The German figure is far higher. We must be careful not to crowd out renewables, as the figures demonstrate has happened in the past. As I have said before, the timing for renewables is still within the window of opportunity to tackle climate change.