Amber Rudd announced today that she was cutting on shore wind energy subsidies because she wanted ‘renewable energy to stand on its own feet.’
Wales Green Party leader, Pippa Bartolotti said, “This announcement underlines the hollow values of the Tory government. If renewables are expected to stand on their own financial feet, why not the oil industry and the fracking game? The oil industry is subsidised by £2.6 billion a year, and frackers will have their taxes halved. This Tory government is subsidising the very industries which are leading us to irreparable climate change.”
A report by the OECD suggests global subsidies to fossil fuel producers totalled $523bn a year in 2011 – dwarfing subsidies to renewable energies. For every £1 spent to support renewable energy, another £6 were spent on fossil fuel subsidies, says the report.
Pippa Bartolotti added, “One could be forgiven for thinking that the government has more friends in the fossil fuel industry than in the renewables sector. Short term gain will lead to long term pain. The trickle of climate refugees will soon become a flood of people on the move, fighting for survival as their land and water becomes unusable. Encouraging dirty fuel producers to fill the atmosphere with yet more greenhouse gasses, whilst making it ever more difficult and expensive for clean energy to be produced is irresponsible in the extreme.
“Onshore wind energy might be a blight on Tory landscapes, but it is the cheapest and most efficient method of harnessing the renewable energy we need if we are to avoid a warming of less than 2 degrees. This decision shows the government has no legitimate environmental intent.”