Energy minister Malcolm Wicks has warned that, without action, 80 per cent of the UK’s gas supply could come from abroad by the year 2020.

Speaking to the Social Market Foundation, Wicks said the UK is running a risk of falling behind energy policy goals as it becomes increasingly reliant on gas imports.

19 per cent of the UK’s energy is nuclear, 33 per cent from coal, 40 per cent gas and 4 per cent renewable sources. While this sourcing is diverse, Wicks said that changing habits required we rethink our energy future and secure clean, affordable energy supplies for the long-term.

"At home our gas output has declined faster than expected, most of our nuclear stations will decommission by 2020, and EU Directives to cut emissions could bring coal generation down to 16 per cent by 2020,” he said.

"As economies like China, India and Brazil expand and their thirst for energy increases we'll be competing with them to secure those supplies across what may at times be unstable borders.”

Wicks posed several questions for review including how to more quickly reduce carbon emissions, how to develop more effective policy tools for securing energy efficiency and how to achieve reliable energy supplies.

Concluding, he said: “There will be challenging decisions to be taken at the end of this process but it is better to take them soon - and in good time - than to be judged severely by future generations who might otherwise ask why we did not act when we had the opportunity to do so."

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