THE green agenda has been the preserve of the Left for too long, Amber Rudd, the Energy Secretary, has declared, insisting that the best way to deliver effective action on climate change was through the markets and creating new technologies for businesses to promote.
In her first major speech as Secretary of State, Ms Rudd told an audience in London: “It cannot be left to one part of the political spectrum to dictate the solution and some of the loudest voices have approached climate action from a left wing perspective. So I can understand the suspicion of those who see climate action as some sort of cover for anti-growth, anti-capitalist, proto-socialism.”
Making clear there was no longer any debate about whether or not climate change was happening, she stressed how new technologies had to learn to stand on their own feet. Her remarks come in the wake of the UK Government announcing an end to funding for the Green Deal, the energy-efficient home improvement scheme, as well as subsidies for onshore wind farms and new solar power projects.
Earlier this week, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, wrote to David Cameron, urging the Prime Minister to relax the clampdown on onshore wind subsidies, pointing out how 70 per cent of planned wind farms were set to be built in Scotland and so it would be disproportionately affected by the cutbacks.
But in her speech, Ms Rudd explained: “Governments can set the direction, set the vision, set the ambition; we can create the framework, create the rules, provide the support, predictability and stability needed. But that support must help technologies eventually stand on their own two feet, not to encourage a permanent reliance on subsidy.”
She argued the economic impact of unchecked climate change would be profound: lower growth; higher prices and a lower quality of life.
"So I see climate action as a vital safety net for our families and business, protection for our homes, our livelihoods, our prosperity. It is the ultimate insurance policy."
The Energy Secretary added: “The best way to deliver on this is through the way we know the economics will work best: using the markets, using free enterprise and competition to drive down the costs of climate action; to develop new technologies with business recognising the opportunity for growth, and, yes, profit too, that a clean economy represents.”
Labour’s Caroline Flint branded the Energy Secretary’s comments on proto-socialism “unbelievable,” noting how in 2008 the Climate Change Act received cross-party support. “Statements like this undermine that crucial consensus,” she added.
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