Greenest Government Grumbles

Labour MP Michael Meacher takes the Cameron Govt to task on its green claims - and makes some decent points on renewable energy, energy efficiency, the Green Investment Bank...Two days ago Ed Davey, the replacement for Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, repeated again the Coalition’s boast that it was the greenest government ever. Even by the standards of current self-congratulatory political rhetoric, that’s pretty vapid. It’s worth exploring the actual record. The Coalition Agreement proposed to increase the target for energy from renewable sources. In 2010 the UK was ranked third in the world for investment in green business, and investment in alternative energy and clean technology reached £7bn. However it has now been rated 13^th, mainly because investment in wind energy fell 40% last year, with only one offshore wind-farm being completed. That reflected the Chancellor’s openly stated negative attitude to green energy, supported by the letter sent by 101 Conservative MPs to the Prime Minister deploring wind-power development both onshore and offshore...Friends of the Earth in their recent report...judged that they found little or no progress in three-quarters of the government’s 77 green policies that they examined. (more)