If RFJ Turtle looked at the Government's energy policy he or she would realise that it is not the Government's aim to replace existing power stations completely with wind turbines (Letters, March 1).

This is not an EU versus England issue. It is about our country making its fair share of cuts in emissions. Britain has its own target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

There is a wide-ranging scientific consensus that actually we need to achieve 80 per cent cuts in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Friends of the Earth and the Co-operative Bank commissioned research to show that we can reach these levels of cuts through a range of measures without the need to resort to nuclear power.

Nuclear power is expensive and leaves a legacy of deadly radioactive waste which remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years. The Government must massively increase financial incentives to make it cheap and easy for householders to reduce their emissions. We also need to tackle transport, which accounts for about a quarter of emissions, by reducing the need to travel and investing properly in alternatives to the car.

A range of renewable power is part of the solution including solar, wave, wind and the use of combined heat and power schemes.

While Britain is the windiest country in Europe, it would indeed be "madness" to focus just on wind power. However, continuing to stick our heads in the sand and insist on doing nothing is not the answer.

Each and every one of us can make a difference by small actions such as switching down thermostats, using cars less and changing to "green" energy suppliers. In particular our elected MPs have a strong role to play in making sure that the new climate law is as strong as possible to ensure that action is taken by those who would prefer to do nothing.

  • Brenda Pollack, South East regional campaigns co-ordinator Friends of the Earth