by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Commenting on the release on Thursday, June 27, 2013 on the first official statistics of take up of the Government's flagship Green Deal scheme for energy efficiency, Friends of the Earth's Warm Homes Campaigner Dave Timms said that the figures are a disaster but not unexpected. “The Green Deal's potential”, he continued, “has been absurdly overhyped by Ministers to cover the fact they didn't have a comprehensive strategy for insulating the UK's cold, expensive to heat homes.”
To which he added: “Saving energy is vital for making energy bills affordable and tackling climate change, but with only four households taking up loans since the Green Deal began, the Government's efforts are falling embarrassingly short.
“Lower interest rates, more incentives and tough regulations on landlords to improve the worst insulated rented homes would all increase the take-up of energy efficiency measures.
“The fuel poor especially have been left in the cold by recent cuts to Government energy efficiency schemes, which must be reversed.”
For the figures on the Green Deal visit DECC's website.
The “greenest government ever” still has not delivered despite all the promises and all the hype that accompanied the statements that were made when the Con-Dem coalition took office.
In fact, instead of real green measures all this government has done is supporting those that are responsible for pollution and the gases that contribute to an acceleration of climate change.
The feed-in tariff was reduced more and more even though the people not even received, in the UK, unlike in Germany and other countries, the wholesale price of electricity of the energy they fed into the grid from their solar or wind installations. A proper return on investment might have caused a great uptake as would have enforcing the legislation that said that no planing permission be required any more for solar PV and small wind installations.
While Whitehall said that it was supposed to be a right to install such local authorities still demanded the planing process and more often than not refused permission.
The “greenest government ever” simply never delivered on its hyped up promises and still does not. It rather supports an energy industry that will leave our children and grandchildren and their children and generations to come a dangerous legacy in the form of nuclear waste.
We do not need a new government; we need a new system.
© 2013
