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The Government's ambitious plans for a green energy supply would have been necessary even without its legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third by 2020.
The decline in North Sea oil and the dependency on gas supplies from uncertain sources abroad make a change of direction necessary. There is also a moral case for a switch towards renewable sources.
The chief elements of the policy announced by the Environment Secretary, Ed Miliband, in the White Paper are self-evidently good.
The Government will take control of the national grid and will use its authority to favour renewable electricity and oblige the regulator, Ofgen, to deal with carbon pollution. It will also force the energy companies to help poorer families meet energy bills.
And crucially, it will encourage individual households to generate their own clean energy - through, for instance, solar panels - and to sell the surplus to the national grid.
This was done in Germany a decade ago, which gives substance to the Tories' charge that the Government is doing the right thing far too late.
On the bright side, the cross-party consensus means that there is a very good chance that there will be continuity in this respect at least in the event that the Tories win the next election.
Yet in some ways the White Paper falls short of expectations. Mr Miliband's insistence that he is willing for aviation to continue business more or less as usual is politically expedient - no party wants to be branded an enemy of cheap flights - but it is to ignore the reality that aviation is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Miliband wants Britain to meet 40 per cent of its energy needs from wind, tidal and nuclear energy, but this does not do justice to the great possibilities of solar energy, even with our weather, which have been usefully exploited in Germany and Japan.
And then there is the price. These projects could cost £100 billion; most will have to come from individuals.
No one wants to replace old houses with new ones but older homes are expensive to insulate. Moreover, many poorer people rent and have no incentive to pay for insulation. The onus may be on the energy companies to solve that.
But unless houses become more energy-efficient, there will be a hefty increase in household fuel bills, by up to £249 a year, according to the Renewable Energy Strategy.
For all the caveats, Mr Miliband's approach to energy use will go some way to making us a low-carbon economy.
Better banking
Tomorrow, Sir David Walker, former chairman of Morgan Stanley International, issues his interim report on improving the way banks are run. Already the outlines of his approach are clear.
He wants banks to be run by bankers rather than high-flyers from other industries with little banking expertise.
Controversially, he proposes to make banks more transparent about pay, by disclosing the pay and bonuses of staff earning more than average executive salaries, but he does, mercifully, allow for the disclosure to avoid giving individuals' salaries.
He also wants a committee to ensure that remuneration rewards prudent behaviour, not rash risk-taking. That is sensible.
However, the insistence that directors, including nonexecutive ones, should keep tighter control of the direction of the bank rather ignores the fact that executives such as Sir Fred Goodwin were able to fob off questions by members of the board.
For all that, this is a reasonable approach to regulation, which tries to learn and apply the lessons of the credit crunch.
Martyr for truth
The murder of the Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova was the direct result of her work documenting the abuses of government-backed militia in Chechnya.
The best tribute we can pay her is to ensure that her campaign to hold the government of Chechnya to account for its abuses is maintained, not forgotten.
Reader views (2)
Not all the chief elements of David Milliband's policy are "self-evidently good", if one includes the imposition of thousands more industrial wind turbines on the UK's green and pleasant countryside. This is eco-vandalism of the worst kind, perpetrated by an urban-minded government that has displayed little understanding or consideration of rural affairs or concerns.
- Andy Jessett, Bishops Waltham, England, 16/07/2009 14:50
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In 30 years time when they find out that the computer models for global warming were wrong they will be charging us for taking out insulation from our lofts because we are too hot, or is it cold, do we know what will happen, maybe mammoths will make a return, its a load of rubbish
- Rob, Rock Ferry Wirral, 16/07/2009 14:46
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