"Renewable energy cannot be delivered in isolation from other government policy objectives", is the message from the Countryside Agency director David Coleman, responding to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report on renewable ener...
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Getting real on renewables - 24 July 2002

"Renewable energy cannot be delivered in isolation from other government policy objectives", is the message from the Countryside Agency director David Coleman, responding to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report on renewable energy1.

"The Countryside Agency shares the Committee's support for delivery of Government's renewables targets and backs many of its recommendations. However, we cannot see a solution in its recommendations on planning and on public awareness. 

"By concentrating on the technical and economic factors, the Committee has missed two of the pivotal areas which will determine the success of renewable energy.

"The first of these is the need to link renewable energy to other activities. Tying in renewable energy with regeneration and diversification in cities, the urban fringe and the countryside will get more organisations and people involved in designing and developing renewables, and in sharing the benefits.

"Secondly, the primacy given to renewable energy by the Committee fails to recognise the range of other objectives facing decision makers. We need to raise and maintain high quality development, support rural tourism and maintain the quality of the countryside, especially where society needs wild areas and tranquillity. 

"An integrated approach to renewables will encourage people and organisations to innovate, and help deliver renewables developments which are sensitive to their locality, whether it is a market town, open countryside, or regenerating the edge of a city. 

"The Committee's desire for a presumption in favour of renewables developments in the 

planning system will impose developments on people and their place. They will marginalise people from the development process, deny other objectives for sustainable development, and will encourage poor quality developments. This is not the way to win the battle for public opinion. 

"Integrating the different objectives and helping people take responsibility for renewables should be at the heart of the task we all face on renewable energy."

- ends -

Notes to editors

1Sustainable Energy, Renewables and the PIU review. Published on 22 July 2002 by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.

The Countryside Agency is responsible for advising government and taking action on issues affecting the social, economic and environmental well being of the English countryside. www.countryside.gov.uk

The Countryside Agency is also the Government's adviser on sustainable development in the countryside. The Countryside Agency has been an active contributor to the Government's Renewable Energy Advisory Committee and now leads the Community Renewables Initiative, which involves 10 partnerships of bodies co-ordinating the delivery of community based renewable energy developments.