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.
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