The Western Isles would also become one of Europe’s biggest centres for renewable energy research creating up to 1000 jobs

The Western Isles would also become one of Europe’s biggest centres for renewable energy research, creating up to 1,000 jobs.The proposal follows a surge of interest from ministers, officials and advisers at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Downing Street and the Department of Transport in using hydrogen as a major fuel source. Ministers have pledged to spend £260m on green energy schemes.The Outer Hebrides is one of the world’s windiest inhabited places, and has the world’s third-highest wave-power levels. It could theoretically generate about 40 per cent of the UK’s 58 gigawatts of peak electricity demand.But it also one of Britain’s poorest areas, with incomes at 65 per cent of the UK average and declining. Its 27,180 population is expected to shrink by 18 per cent by 2016. The islanders have looked on enviously as the Shetland and Orkney islands earn millions of pounds from the oil and gas industry. “We’re sitting on a huge, untapped energy resource here,” said Derek McKim, a Western Isles Council executive.

“We would like to see ourselves as a flagship for renewable energy.”The “energy innovation zone” proposal is supported by Brian Wilson, the energy minister at the DTI who is heading the Government’s energy review announced by Tony Blair last month, and by the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.Mr Wilson is leading a delegation of DTI officials travelling to Stornoway, the islands’ capital, on Wednesday to meet councillors and local economic development agencies. “We will bring a wide range of players together to look at ways of supporting this initiative,” Mr Wilson told The Independent on Sunday.Last week, David Jamieson, the transport minister, told a seminar organised by the centre-left think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research that he was certain hydrogen would play a “key part of any future low-carbon economy”.Hydrogen fuel cells are seen as attractive because the gas, while potentially combustible, does not contribute to climate change. It can be easily and very cheaply generated by electrolysis of water. Fuel cells, a form of rechargeable battery which runs on hydrogen, are also at least twice as energy-efficient as petrol-driven engines.Mr Wilson, a former Scotland Office and Foreign Office minister, is keen to distance himself from his reputation as being strongly pro-nuclear power. As part of the energy review, he unveiled plans last week to boost electricity production from hydroelectric dams.The ability of hydrogen fuel cells to store electrical energy would be extremely attractive on the Western Isles since the islands could generate much more renewable power than they can use.Council officials claim the project could succeed without direct government grants, if the Treasury were to temporarily lift or cut taxes such as National Insurance and VAT for businesses involved in the project.. The Government has admitted that the number of animal experiments has increased in spite of the protests which threatened to shut down some of Britain’s laboratories.

The Government has admitted that the number of animal experiments has increased in spite of the protests which threatened to shut down some of Britain’s laboratories.
The row over animal testing is likely to be inflamed by the disclosure that 2.71 million procedures were performed on animals last year, a rise of 58,000 on the previous year.Norman Baker, the Lib-Dem MP for Lewes, who opposes animal experiments, said: “Any pretence Labour has about reducing animal experiments has been dashed.”Labour’s Tony Banks, another MP campaigning for animal rights, said: “This is 2.7 million too many in my view.”Huntingdon Life Sciences was targetted earlier this year by animal rights activists who tried to close the company down with violent threats to its City backers. The Government made a rescue plan through the Bank of England to prevent the company being forced out of business.The latest figures given in Parliamentary replies by ministers show that 82 per cent of animal experiments involved the use of rats, mice and other rodents. Fish and birds were used in 14 per cent of the procedures.About 66 per cent of the procedures were for biological research and applied human or veterinary medicine. A further 17 per cent were for toxicological or safety testing, mostly for pharmaceutical evaluation.Dogs, cats, horses and primates covered by the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act were used in less than 1 per cent of the procedures, said Lord Rooker, a Home Office minister.. George Bush is becoming increasingly isolated this weekend in his attempt to kill the international negotiations to control potentially catastrophic global warming.

George Bush is becoming increasingly isolated this weekend in his attempt to kill the international negotiations to control potentially catastrophic global warming.
Most of the United States’ closest allies at the resumed talks on the Kyoto Protocol in the former German capital have distanced themselves from its hardline opposition to the treaty and the President is coming under growing pressure both from other world leaders and from the US Congress to change his stance.Canada – which had taken a similar hardline position and whose economy is intricately linked to that of the United States – surprised delegates by abruptly breaking ranks with President Bush, who has described the treaty as “fatally flawed”. Its deputy Prime Minister, Herb Gray, stressed “Canada’s unequivocal support for the Kyoto Protocol”.There was further support for the treaty from the G8 summit in Genoa yesterday where British officials indicated that both Japanese and Canadian governments may back the agreement.The European Union has already announced its readiness to ratify the treaty. Only Australia now firmly backs the United States but elections are due this year and the opposition – which is ahead in the polls – is taking a softer stance.The United States has been taken aback by the workmanlike attitude of the talks here, with ministers unwilling to return home without some sort of agreement, after the collapse of the last conference in The Hague last November.The United States had expected that the talks would collapse, thus justifying the US decision to pull out.Mr Michael Meacher, the environment minister, said: “The Americans seem to be surprised by the generally upbeat atmosphere at the talks.”Meanwhile Mr Bush is also under attack at home. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed a motion in support of the Kyoto Protocol and the Democratic majority in the Senate is putting forward measures to reduce omissions of carbon dioxide from power stations.Some of Mr Bush’s own cabinet have also tried to persuade him to soften his stance, but the President has so far remained personally adamant in his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.. How Charles van Commenee has managed to make it to Birmingham on time is something of a mystery. His office is in Eton and, as Lynn Bowles has been lamenting every half an hour on Radio 5 Live, the M40 has been blocked all afternoon.

“Oh, I haven’t come from Eton,” the Dutchman says as he leads the way to the restaurant at the Great Barr Hotel. “I’ve been all round London looking for a track for Denise to train on. They’ve all been booked for school sports days.” Welcome to life in the fast lane of British sport. Van Commenee is the man who guided Denise Lewis to Olympic heptathlon gold in Sydney last September. He is also attempting to steer her to the World Championships title in Edmonton in two weeks’ time. And yet here he is, having to steer Britain’s golden girl from pillar to post in search of somewhere to hone her Midas touch. How Charles van Commenee has managed to make it to Birmingham on time is something of a mystery.