The European Commission will tomorrow call for "a new industrial revolution", promoting renewable energy and nuclear power to replace dwindling fossil fuels and combat climate change.
Its controversial proposals, outlined in a series of papers on energy policy and competition, are partly based on research published yesterday showing the price of oil and gas is likely to double to $110 a barrel as global reserves plateau.
Coal, it says, will stage a comeback prompted by new carbon-capture and storage systems.
The commission's white paper foresees EU energy imports jumping to 65 per cent of consumption by 2030, when 84 per cent of gas and 93 per cent of oil will come from overseas, making the drive to increase the use of renewables, hydrogen and nuclear inexorable.
The promotion of atomic energy, partly for use in producing hydrogen, is the most controversial aspect of its proposals, as nuclear power is banned in countries such as Austria and is being phased out in others such as Germany and Sweden. The proposal is couched in implicit terms - not least because an EU-wide poll shows only 20 per cent backing for nuclear power.
With the commission setting a minimum target of a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, nuclear power is seen in yesterday's research as providing 30 per cent of Europe's energy demand by 2050.
Renewables, such as wind power, would provide slightly more than a fifth. But, in a low-carbon scenario, these two would fuel three-quarters of power generation, with half of the rest coming from plants with carbon dioxide capture and storage. - ( Guardian service)