Quote of the week

Caroline Lucas, British Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion, wrote in the Guardian this week about changes to energy efficiency policies in the UK:

“Going green does not have to cost the Earth,” the chancellor said, apparently without a hint of irony – shortly after confirming that the Energy Companies Obligation [editor’s note: the energy efficiency obligation under the EU energy efficiency directive] is to be watered down . . . not only would serious action to reduce our carbon emissions and address fuel poverty not cost the Earth, it could also generate hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Sadly, today was another in the long line of squandered opportunities to announce the major programme of energy efficiency that we desperately need. The autumn statement Osborne should have delivered would have set out plans for an ambitious programme of action to make all homes super-energy efficient – with full insulation and modern boilers. Installing energy efficiency measures could, according to the Association for the Conservation of Energy, save a typical household more than £500 each year – 10 times more than the £50 Osborne is promising, and also far more than Labour’s price freeze proposals.

. . . Instead we were given more of the same – tax breaks for fracking companies, and no end to lavish subsidies for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries. Today’s statement will not deliver the “responsible” recovery the chancellor promised, and it certainly won’t help us go green.