Report shows the UK is to run out of oil, gas and coal in five years

New research from the Global Sustainability Institute has found that Britain, France and many other European countries have low reserves of fossil fuels, and their home grown energy could be entirely reliant on imports in several years.

The study found that the UK has just 5.2 years of oil, 4.5 years of coal and three years of gas before it completely runs out of fossil fuels, said the researchers at the Institute based at Anglia Ruskin University, in the East of England. France is also in poor shape with less than a year’s worth of fossil fuels in reserve, and Italy has a single year of oil left and less than a year of gas and coal, but France unlike its southern neighbor generates almost 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. 

In contrast Russia, with its huge landmass, has more than 50 years of oil, 100 years of gas and more than 500 years of coal. Norway also has extensive reserves of oil and gas under the North Sea - We can all see why the US is particularly keen to get to Russias borders. 

Ministers have said that they hope to produce enough shale gas through fracking and that new reserves in the North Sea will prolong production there and plug the deficit. However, fracking is facing significant opposition within the country from locals and politicians and the North Sea would be out of bounds to the rest of the UK should Scotland decide to vote for independence in the referendum scheduled for this September.

Read more about this here.

Click the link and then skip in the top corner.