Nigel Farage has slammed speculated Government plans to import fuel from North Korea.
Labour ministers are said to have drawn up a list of potential countries to source biomass, including North Korea and Afghanistan, spurring on criticism that it threatens to undermine the credibility of UK’s overall climate strategy.
In response to the news, Nigel Farage said on social media: “Starmer plans to reach Net Zero by importing fuel from North Korea and Afghanistan.
“This is completely nuts.”
Nigel Farage has called the plans “completely nuts”
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A Government document, published during the Sunak administration, stated: “Where the UK still needs to import biomass or biomass fuels, those imports should be built on strong relationships with trusted partners and allies that can ensure a sustainable, stable and lowest cost source of supply.”
Additionally, the paper said that this was to ensure energy security, supporting national objectives to decrease energy bills as well as inflation.
As biomass has adopted a “significant role” in decarbonising almost every sector of the economy, the UK is considered to have become a global leader in biomass policy and technologies.
On July 18, the Government released the UK and global bioenergy resource model, which has stated that the country must be prepared to massively increase imports of energy crops and wood from overseas in order to reach net zero targets.
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Laid out by the Labour Government, the model has outlined various domestic and foreign sources of bioenergy.
An assessment led by the director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity, Mary Booth, has said that this list of possible sources that appear “improbable” mentions North Korea, Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives.
Dubbing the plan “bonkers”, the director said it falls “against a background of increasing climate change when whole regions are facing famine due to weather-induced crop failures.”
The document has failed to include details on how such foreign deals would work in practice, such as engaging with transparency rules enforced by North Korea’s dictatorship.
When appointed energy secretary in July, Ed Miliband vowed that Labour would take the global lead on climate action
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In 2022, approximately a third of biomass in the UK renewable energy production were sourced internationally, according to Carbon Brief, composed of wood pellets, straw, other plant-based biomass, waste wood, wood and liquid biofuels.
A policy director at Green Alliance said that there “just isn’t enough biomass to go around” and that an “ambitious level of biomass” is required to meet net zero. Currently, there is insufficient wood in previous import sources to reach the amount the Government requires.
Further concerns have been expressed regarding burning biomass and its effect on agriculture, air quality and biodiversity in the UK.
This has contributed to other queries that have been flagged surrounding the likelihood of violating indigenous people’s land rights.
