UK: What is EDM 199?

October 31, 2004

3rd December 2003 saw an Early Day Motion raised by MP David Chaytor. Early Day Motion 199 was an attempt by David Chaytor to table the issue of imminent oil depletion as an issue to be discussed. Although an EDM is unlikely to be discussed in Parliament it does give the chance to gain support for the issue by gaining signatures for the EDM. EDM 199 raised 55 signatures.

PowerSwitch.org.uk has made contact with the EDM 199 signatory MPs urging them to not forget this all important issue.

PowerSwitch.org.uk takes this as a glimmer of hope that there is awareness in Parliament, and a desire, to some extent, for it to be talked about.

OIL DEPLETION, ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND THE LOW CARBON ECONOMY

That this House notes the growing consensus amongst the world’s leading petroleum geologists and geophysicists that the peak of global oil production will occur at some point within the next 10 years; recognises that global oil reserves, which were created over several billion years, will have been largely consumed, primarily by a small number of western industrial democracies, within a little over 100 years; further notes that all future discoveries of oilfields are likely to be in the regions where extraction costs are extremely high; believes that the current military occupation of the world’s second largest oil reserves is largely related to the impending energy crisis in the United States; and therefore calls on the Government to prepare a major public awareness campaign on the future economic and lifestyle consequences of oil depletion, establish a set of national targets for energy self-sufficiency to the year 2050, and increase the budget allocation to scientific research, energy conservation and other policy measures designed to manage the transition to a low carbon economy as speedily and painlessly as possible.


Tags: Fossil Fuels, Oil