Britain announced a major investment in wind power Thursday as it hosted an international summit on energy security — with Europe and the United States at odds over whether to cut their reliance on fossil fuels.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government will invest 300 million pounds ($400 million) in boosting Britain’s capacity to manufacture components for the offshore wind industry, a move it hopes will encourage private investment in the U.K.’s renewable energy sector.
Surging energy prices and the Russia-Ukraine war have made European leaders think hard about global energy security an their reliance on Russian natural gas. Ukraine halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network in January.
“As long as energy can be weaponized against us, our countries and our citizens are vulnerable and exposed,” U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told delegates.
He said “low-carbon power” was a route to energy security as well as a way to slow climate change.
Britain now gets more than half its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and the rest from natural gas and nuclear energy. It aims to generate all the U.K.’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.
The last U.K. coal-fired power plant closed last year, ending 142 years of coal-generated electricity in the nation that sparked the Industrial Revolution.
Other European nations including Germany and France have committed to more wind energy production, and some are also phasing out coal.
The Trump administration is doing the opposite — prioritizing fossil fuels, including boosting coal, canceling financing for clean energy and climate-friendly projects, and targeting the wind industry.
Tommy Joyce, U.S. acting assistant secretary of energy for international affairs, told participants they should be “honest about the world’s growing energy needs, not focused on net-zero politics.”
He called policies that push for clean power over fossil fuels “harmful and dangerous,” and claimed building wind turbines requires “concessions to or coercion from China” because it supplies necessary rare minerals.
Hosted by the British government and the International Energy Agency, the two-day summit brings together government ministers from 60 countries, senior European Union officials, energy sector CEOs, heads of international organizations and nonprofits to assess risks to the global energy system and figure out solutions.