No-one can say that this Government has not fully embraced David Cameron’s mantra to ‘cut the green crap.’ Since getting to power they have, one by one, removed, restricted and reduced the green initiatives put in place under the Liberal Democrats’ watch.

Today, in the House of Lords, we will stand against the latest cuts. The Government plan to cut the Feed-in-Tariff scheme early will result in nearly 20,000 losing their jobs and half of the solar sector disappearing more or less overnight. The Government snuck this past the Commons, and now, given a chance in the Lords, we will send it back.

Today we will remind the Government that supporting green industry is vital to building an economy fit for the future, and, more importantly than that, it will save the world in the long run.

This is just one battle in a wider war on our environment. The Government are ‘cutting the green crap’ at every available opportunity. Pulling the support away from the solar sector at such a vital time is a continuation of a widespread assault on the environment.

We face a Tory Government demolishing the Zero Carbon Homes programme, an excellent initiative pushed forward by Ed Davey the former Lib Dem Energy Secretary, which would have seen all houses built from this year onwards be carbon neutral. Instead the Government is undertaking nothing short of climate vandalism, cancelling the plans just before they were due to come in. We will be retro-insulating new homes for decades to come and families will pay the price on their bills, as we chase carbon targets that will quickly slip beyond our reach.

We have a Government that has cut support to wind farms ripping out a lifeline to the wind sector. Our island should be making the most of the natural resources we have, one of which is wind. By shutting this sector down we have squandered an opportunity to move away from fossil fuels and embrace the weather of these islands which we always talk so much about.

When the Government tried to remove the green remit of the Green Investment Bank, despite the clue being in the title, it was the Lords who fought the change.

Everyone knows we need to build towards a greener future. The science is there, the public will is there and increasingly the profits are there. Why do we face a government so opposed to this concept, a Government so stuck in their ways that we have to fight them on every green issues?

It’s surprising too that the Tories cannot even see the economic case for investing in the green economy. This is the future, and other countries are just wakening up to the opportunities and starting to invest. It’s madness for Britain to be pulling out of this promising sector.

This is a Tory government on the rampage. Today we will take a stand to protect the future of the solar industry, ensuring the Government thinks again not just on these devastating proposals but, hopefully, on their entire brutal approach destructive approach to our environment. We must have a greener future whether the Tories want it or not.

* Robin Teverson is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.