Plans to build thousands of wind farms in the U.K. are irrational and should be scrapped in favor of more gas plants, the Guardian reports Wednesday, citing the deputy chairman of Russia's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS).
Alexander Medvedev said the U.K. and other countries should adopt a more "pragmatic" approach toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions following the impasse at the Copenhagen climate change summit.
He argued it would be impossible to meet the U.K.'s target to generate a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020 without a big contribution from gas, the report says. He also said it would be three times cheaper to meet emission reduction targets by replacing dirty coal plants with new gas plants rather than wind farms.