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LibLink: Lynne Featherstone: The Tories continue to attack the planet

By | Wed 16th March 2016 - 6:45 pm

Lynne Featherstone today tries to get the House of Lords to oppose Tory cuts to renewable obligations, which, as she points out in an article for Politics Home, is hardly consistent with the protocol they signed up to in Paris.

I do not have the space to list the full litany of destruction that has been wrought since the election by this government but it includes such worrying measures as privatising the Green Investment Bank, ending support for onshore wind power, weakening the zero carbon homes standard, and reducing the incentives to purchase low-emission cars.

Now to add to that list we have rooftop solar, a cornerstone of the Solar Strategy produced in April 2014. The tariff that has been set for the 1-5MW solar band is much too low to incentivise rooftop deployment in that size range, leaving larger rooftops with essentially no route to market. The large-scale rooftop market is potentially the most significant and cost-effective solar market. This market dominates across Europe and is expected to reach grid parity first, and yet the UK is not taking this market seriously.

Community energy groups are also being thrown to the dogs. A policy fostered by the last Government, and then forsaken by this one. Many opportunities were created for local communities to share in the economic benefits of local renewable projects, and yet the Tories continue to trample over all green initiatives before them.

You can read the whole article here.

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