The Care2 petition was created by Campaign against Climate Change, an organisation that pushes for action to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate.
In their Care2 Petition, Campaign against Climate Change said, “the UK government is planning to cut subsidies for solar and wind power by up to 87%, while giving billions of taxpayers’ money to privately owned nuclear power projects. The government wants to make these cuts to the ‘feed-in-tariff’ (FiT) which makes solar panels more affordable because extra energy you don’t use is ‘sold back’ to the grid, to be used by others. This will put renewable industries at risk.”
The Conservative Government say the current renewable energy subsidy scheme of feed-in-tariffs is unaffordable and too costly to consumers who pay the subsidies. However, they have just given £2 billion of taxpayers’ money to EDF’s nuclear energy plant, Hinkley Point.
Claire James, Campaigns Coordinator at Campaign against Climate Change said, “The government’s renewables cuts threaten not just UK jobs and community energy but our international standing. Although the UK was once respected as a world leader on climate change, no observer could think that our current government is taking the climate crisis seriously. This is especially worrying in the run-up to the crucial international negotiations in Paris this December.”
Energy company profits rose ten-fold since 2007 with the Big Six energy companies making more than £1.1 billion in 2013. There is no reason for renewable energy subsidies to impact the cost to the consumer – it could come from energy company profits. Even better – energy companies could be nationalised and all profits could then be invested into renewables.
