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Energy UK's rhetoric will likely infuriate environmentalists and renewable energy sector bosses. Photograph: Bloomberg / Getty Images
Energy UK's rhetoric will likely infuriate environmentalists and renewable energy sector bosses. Photograph: Bloomberg / Getty Images

Energy UK: time to rethink 'green' power policies in Brussels

This article is more than 9 years old
Lobby group hopes to harness Eurosceptics' momentum to spark a move away from 'emotion driven' energy agenda

Energy UK will on Monday use electoral successes made by Eurosceptics to call for a rethink on "green" power policies in Brussels.

The lobby group headed by former Conservative MP, Angela Knight, says it is time to move away from "an emotion driven and expensive [energy] agenda."

The attempt to use political advances by the UK Independence party and others to dilute measures to counter climate change will infuriate environmentalists and renewable energy executives.

It follows a survey by Ernst & Young (EY) that found the attractiveness of the UK renewables market in the eyes of investors and developers has decreased dramatically over the last 18 months. Last week RWE, one of the big six energy companies in Britain, expressed frustration as Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, blocked planning for an onshore wind farm application in Yorkshire. Pickles has already turned down a string of onshore wind farm projects and is understood to be a key figure behind proposals for the next Conservative party manifesto to make a commitment to end subsidies to onshore wind industry.

Many big six energy suppliers in Britain believe that the loss of trust in their industry has come about because they are unfairly blamed for rising costs to consumers.The industry has successfully lobbied the government to slow down or remove some of its social and "green" obligations. It seems the industry now wants much less stringent renewable energy targets, which would reduce their costs and potentially lower consumer bills but lead to higher carbon emissions which would worsen global warming.

Speaking ahead of a European electricity conference in London on Monday being hosted by Energy UK, Knight said Brussels bureaucrats needed to change their power policies in the light of negative feedback from voters all over the continent.

"It is a week and a day since the European elections which clearly demonstrated how people's view of the European Union both here and in a number of other countries, has changed.

One outcome has to be that EU energy policy can no longer be decided without sensible timetables and ignoring the reality that people have to pay for these decisions," she said.

"We have an opportunity in the energy industry to get fact based, logic based, properly costed and sensible EU policy-making and to encourage a move away from an emotion driven and expensive agenda," Knight added.

Meanwhile EY, the business consultancy, said its latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI), which ranks the investment potential of 40 countries' renewables markets, puts the UK in sixth place behind the US, China, Germany, Japan and Canada. This is the second quarter in a row that Britain has dropped a place."The UK has slipped to sixth place for the first time in more than a year.Policy tinkering and conflicting signals once again become too much for investors and developers to handle," said Ben Warren, EY's environmental finance leader. "The recent carbon tax freeze, an energy market competition probe and Conservative party plans to scrap onshore wind subsidies post 2015 are weighing heavily on the sector's ability to assess the long-term outlook. In addition, the launch of a government consultation on future financial support for solar has taken the shine off the UK's otherwise booming solar market," he added.

"As ever with the renewables sector, more damaging than the outcome of any review itself, is the uncertainty it creates and the trust it erodes. This last quarter has been no exception, with little done to foster sympathy from the renewable energy sector, which appears to be continuously caught in the firing line."

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