Campaigners are blaming the Government for the UK’s plummeting investment in green energy. According to new figures from Bloomberg, green investment is at its lowest in four years, and critics argue this is because the Government has failed to set a target date for cleaning up the power sector.
Veteran Conservative Tim Yeo has co-authored an amendment calling for Britain’s electricity sector to produce no more than 50g of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour by 2030. This is considered to be the equivalent of decarbonisation, but the Energy Secretary Ed Davey – a Liberal Democrat – is against this move as he claims it should be delayed until after the next election. However, internal Lib Dem Pressure group, the Social Liberal Forum, sent a letter to the party’s backbench MPs urging them to ‘vote for the inclusion of a clear decarbonisation target’.
Shadow Energy Secretary Caroline Flint has also contacted all Liberal Democrat MPs, telling them they need to defy their leadership and support the amendment. According to Flint, ‘We are the windiest country in Europe, and when it comes to marine energy Britain really can rule the waves. But businesses will only invest in the technology to convert the sun, the wind and the waves into energy if they know the Government is committed to decarbonisation.’
Former environment minister Yeo asserted, ‘There is a crisis now because of this fall in investment. We have the real risk that there will not be enough capacity before the end of this decade. We need more investment taking place and urgently need predictability and certainty in policy. Until we have this, investors will have to seek higher returns, which will risk higher electricity bills.’ Around 45 MPs have signed Mr Yeo’s amendment so far, including five Tories and 11 Lib Dems.
However, Davey responded, ‘We have already made clear that £7.6bn per year of support will be available by 2020 and have committed to setting a decarbonisation target. There is a logic to setting it in 2016 when we know what the fifth Carbon Budget will look like. This will ensure that it is set in the context of what has been achieved, and still has to be achieved across the rest of the economy.’ A spokesman at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) added, ‘Investment in renewable energy has seen an overall increase since 2009. It is true that investment fell slightly right across the world last year, but the drop was much less for the UK than in comparable countries.’
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