Plenary Speech - Wednesday 31st January 2007

We are speaking as though the debate is over, and the threat of catastrophic global warming is real. Yet there are many climatologists who take a different view. They believe that current changes are within the normal historic range, and that predictions of future warming are exaggerated and alarmist.

Nevertheless, whatever our view on climate change, energy security demands that we reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels. We can no longer rely on Russia , the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela for energy.

While we must develop renewables, and enhance energy conservation, there is only one non-carbon technology which can provide the continuous, reliable base-load power we need to drive economic growth, and that technology is nuclear.

It is bitterly ironic that many of the climate alarmists, who call for dramatic reductions in carbon emissions, also oppose nuclear power.