UK climate change policy pants says the CBI

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]Business leaders have delivered a surprise attack on the UK Government’s environmental policy with the CBI saying that ministers are not doing enough to tackle global warming or ensure that the UK does not run out of power. Sir Nicholas Stern had already made the very wise point that it will be far far cheaper to tackle the causes of climate change now rather than wait until its too late and then try and rectify global warming, and the distinguished sociologist Anthony Giddens has pointed out in his new book on global warming that there is a dreadful paradox attached to climate change: however dangerous the perils of global warming are, because they are not immediately visible in daily life people will not have the will to tackle them – and will only be motivated to take action when it’s too late. But surely even putting aside the environmental factors of pollution and global warming, it’s hard not to see the economic, political and frankly military reasons for investing in sustainable power now – the UK is hugely reliant on imported oil and gas to produce electricity (which is responsible for 40% of our CO2 emissions) – and let’s be quite frank, sometimes those imports are put at risk by factors beyond our control – and let’s remember that with shades of Mad Max in Beyond the Thunderdome, Russia recently turned off the Ukraine’s gas supplies in the middle of a bitter winter. The CBI says that billions of pounds of necessary investment will go to the USA or China unless the government takes “urgent action” to improve both the politics and policies to improve the investment climate for the green energy sector saying planning delays, a lack of connections to the National Grid, reduced funding for technology and uncertainty over log term carbon ‘prices’ were all delaying growth of sustainable energy in the UK and the CBI‘s warning comes after a number of announcements by major companies including Centrica, BP and Shell that they would not be investing in the UK (see earlier posts on this blog). The CBI’s intervention was supported by results from a survey of green energy companies that showed three quarters were facing financial difficulties as the ongoing credit crunch reduced the availability of loans and inward investment in the UK. As BP goes back to petroleum and you really can NOT be sure of Shell any more, we need a government that leads and doesn’t just react. Coal is NOT the future, green energy is – the sun, the wind, waves and tides provide a sustainable future for the UK. The US seems to get it, South Korea gets it, Spain gets it, why can’t Gordon, Alistair and the motley crew of expense obsessed cabinet ministers get it?See previous posts for stories on sustainable energy and the economy:Can we promote sustainability over growth / UK wind programme blown of course / Shell pulls out of renewable energy / Spain powers up green economy / Is a credit crunch good for the economy? / Renewable energy suffers from a lack of investmenthttp://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/staticpages.nsf/StaticPages/home.html/?OpenDocument[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]