Caroline Lucas mocks Lib Dems on solar commitments

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has mocked the Lib Dems for failing to prevent the government from slashing support for solar projects.

The Brighton Pavilion MP highlights that the Liberal Democrats pledged to increase support for the solar industry in their manifesto, but in the light of reduced support for the technology Ms Lucas is fearing the consequences.

She said in a letter to the Guardian: “At a meeting on solar power organised by the Renewable Energy Association in parliament last week, we saw strong evidence that solar has huge potential to deliver affordable and secure energy, and can play a significant role in the decarbonisation of our economy.

“But if the government sticks with its policy of slashing support for large-scale solar projects, the potential for the industry to flourish here in the UK will be completely undermined.”

She added: “The irony is that in opposition, current members of the government criticised the last government for its “modest” PV Fit scheme. The Liberal Democrats, in particular, went into the last election promising to triple the ambition of Labour’s offer – saying Labour weren’t doing enough. Yet now the government wants to do even less.”

The Green leader, who has seen her party annihilate the Lib Dems in Brighton and Hove, fears the lack of support for solar technologies is a missed opportunity for both the environment and the economy.

She explained: “This is bad news for jobs, bad news for the economy and bad news for the environment. Because despite our famously unreliable weather, the UK receives very similar levels of irradiation (sunlight) to Germany – which now employs 100,000 people in its solar industry (around 10 times the number employed in the UK).”

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Posted by on July 4, 2011. Filed under Brighton Environment News,Green Party,Liberal Democrats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
  • Eab

    did she send this letter from her home in Brussels or did she actually come to the UK to send it?

  • Myview

    Think Caroline lives in Brighton now – with all her family. Get over your petty political sniping.