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Summary of WWF – UK Position:

WWF believes that a revolution in our energy systems is vital if we are to meet the challenges of climate change and energy security. Our absolute priorities must be a strong drive for energy efficiency and sustainable, low-impact renewable energy technologies. We strongly support the government’s commitment to deliver the UK’s fair share of the EU renewable energy target for 2020, but in doing so it must respect wider concerns over environmental sustainability. WWF is concerned that the Feasibility Study into Tidal Power in the Severn Estuary will prioritise energy output over environmental and economic impacts, resulting in a bias towards traditional generation proposals that are more fully developed without full and proper consideration being given to all possible alternatives. We therefore call on the government to ensure that alternative, lower-impact options to exploit the Severn’s tidal energy are not excluded from the ongoing feasibility study, and to ensure that its overall energy policy is designed to deliver rapid uptake of lower-impact technologies both in the Severn and across the UK.