来源：《新科学家》
原文见刊日期：2022年10月8日
本文适合2024考生
Labour, the main opposition party in the UK, is promising to place renewable energy at the heart of its economic policy if it wins the next general election. Plans include the creation of a publicly owned low-carbon energy firm and significant investment in green infrastructure.
英国主要反对党工党(Labour)承诺，如果赢得下届大选，将把可再生能源作为其经济政策的核心。计划包括创建一家公有的低碳能源公司，并对绿色基础设施进行大规模投资。
“We will set up Great British Energy in the first year of a Labour government,” the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, told delegates at its conference on 27 September. “A new company that takes advantage of opportunities in clean British power.” Public ownership makes most sense for jobs, growth and “energy independence from tyrants”, he said.
工党领袖凯尔·斯塔默在9月27日的会议上告诉代表们：“我们将在工党执政的第一年成立大不列颠能源公司。一家利用英国清洁能源机遇的新公司。”他说，公有制对就业、增长和“能源独立于暴君”最有意义。
At the moment, many UK energy resources are owned by foreign governments and companies. For example, the largest onshore wind farm in Wales is owned by Sweden. “Five million people in Britain pay their bills to an energy company owned by France,” said Starmer, referring to EDF, which is largely owned by the French state and in the process of being fully nationalised.
目前，英国的许多能源资源为外国政府和公司所有。例如，威尔士最大的陆上风力发电场归瑞典所有。斯塔默说：“英国有500万人向法国所有的能源公司支付账单。”他指的是法国电力公司，该公司大部分股份由法国政府持有，且正处于完全国有化的过程中。
But would public ownership really make a difference in helping the UK achieve its legally mandated goal of net-zero emissions by 2050? Some industry experts have reacted positively to the announcement. Great British Energy is “exactly the kind of daring plan that will be required to accelerate the transition”, says Phil MacDonald, CEO of Ember, a UK energy think tank.
但是，公有制真的能帮助英国实现到2050年净零排放的法定目标吗？一些行业专家对这一声明做出了积极反应。英国能源智库Ember的首席执行官菲尔•麦克唐纳表示，大不列颠能源“正是加速转型所需的那种大胆计划”。
Others are less convinced. Tom Haddon, a consultant at Arcadis UK, tweeted: “Why bother? Private capital is literally falling over itself to get into renewable energy generation in the UK.”
其他人则不那么信服。阿卡迪斯英国公司的顾问汤姆·哈登在推特上说：“何必呢？私人资本正在争先恐后地进入英国的可再生能源发电领域。”
But this view reflects “a real short-sightedness that wind and solar is all there is”, says MacDonald. It is expected that these technologies, which are already well funded, will grow to make up 70 to 80 per cent of the UK’s electricity generation by 2030, he says, but other, riskier technologies are needed to make up the rest of a zero-carbon electricity system.
但麦克唐纳说，这种观点反映了“一种真正的短视，认为风能和太阳能就是唯一的选择”。他表示，预计到2030年，这些资金充足的技术将占到英国发电量的70%至80%，但零碳电力系统的其余部分还需要其他风险更高的技术。
MacDonald says these include massive investment in grid infrastructure, hydrogen, small nuclear reactors and carbon capture and storage, technologies that aren’t yet mature and that have struggled to get financial backing. A publicly owned energy company could make riskier investments, which would improve the chance of such technologies becoming commercially viable, he says.
麦克唐纳表示，这些投资包括对电网基础设施、氢气、小型核反应堆以及碳捕获和储存的大规模投资，这些技术尚未成熟，难以获得资金支持。他说，一家公有能源公司可以进行更高风险的投资，这将提高此类技术在商业上可行的机会。
Once commercialised, these new green technologies will be in demand in the rest of the world, which is where the second part of Labour’s plan comes in. Labour’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, set out plans for an £8 billion national wealth fund to support the development of green infrastructure, including green steel plants and battery factories, created by revenues from renewable energy. While Norway has built a massive sovereign wealth fund on the back of fossil fuels, the UK would probably be the first country to build such a fund from scratch using renewable energy assets.
一旦商业化，这些新的绿色技术将满足世界其他地方的需求，这就是工党计划的第二部分。工党的影子财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯制定了一项80亿英镑的国家财富基金计划，以支持绿色基础设施的发展，包括绿色钢铁厂和电池工厂，这些都是由可再生能源带来的收入创造的。挪威以化石燃料为依托建立了一个庞大的主权财富基金，而英国很可能是第一个利用可再生能源资产从零开始建立此类基金的国家。