BRITAIN is lagging behind the rest of the Western world in funding research into new forms of energy, it emerged yesterday, as the International Energy Agency called for more investment to combat climate change.

Despite the Prime Minister’s support for renewable energy, the UK has been investing less in energy research than much smaller European states, such as the Netherlands, Sweden and even Switzerland, the IEA says.

Claude Mandil, the IEA’s executive director, speaking before the G8 summit at Gleneagles, where climate change will head the agenda, said: “Governments must actively promote and support energy research.

“That means not only reversing present trends of shrinking public R&D budgets but committing more funding and increasing budgets.”

France spent $500 million (£285 million) on energy research in 2001 and the most recent year for which the IEA has complete figures, the British Government contributed only a tenth of that amount towards research into renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear fission and fusion.

The US and Japanese governments together spent more than $6 billion.

Britain’s investment in energy research has been in decline since the early 1990s. Public opposition towards nuclear power worsened the decline and there is no institution in Britain today that awards a degree in nuclear engineering.

In 2002 the Chancellor sought to reverse the trend, agreeing to spend £500 million over seven years. Britain lags behind most Western countries in its investment in science and technology. According to EU figures, Britain spends just 1.8 per cent of its GDP on research, compared with an EU average of 2 per cent.

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