Britain to double low carbon role by 2020

By Peter Griffiths and Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will double the share of its electricity generated from low carbon sources by 2020 as part of plans to cut emissions and counter global warming, the government said on Wednesday.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said 40 percent of electricity will come from nuclear, wind, solar, marine and cleaner coal, compared with a fifth today.

By 2020, renewable energy sources will provide 31 percent of electricity, up from 6 percent today, while nuclear's share will fall to 8 percent from current levels of between 15 percent and nearly a quarter, depending on the variable output of nuclear plants.

"Our plan will strengthen our energy security...it seizes industrial opportunity and it rises to the moral challenge of climate change," Miliband said in a statement.

The pledge shows Britain's commitment to climate talks in Copenhagen in December that aim to secure a global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions, he added.

Attempts to reach a new accord have foundered on fears that environmental targets could hamper any economic recovery and rows between rich and developing nations on emissions cuts.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who chaired the Major Economies Forum this month, failed to convince China, India and others to agree to a G8-supported goal of halving world emissions by 2050.

With Britain in its worst recession in 50 years and the Labour Party trailing in the polls with an election less than a year away, the government has been keen to talk up the benefits of the growing environmental sector.