If the Conservative Party form the next government of the United Kingdom what will be their specific environmental and climate change policies? So far the Conservatives have not published a cohesive strategy, neither have they provided details on their likely energy policy, and energy policy will be an essential part of their climate protection ideas. I expect that when an election is announced we shall see these policies on these topics promulgated. For now those that are concerned with providing renewable energy, Genersys, have to wait.
I suppose that this is no different to existing Government policy in areas that affect Genersys. A policy on renewable heat will not, I understand be with us until April 2011, which is nearly a year after the last possible date of a general election.
So far the Conservatives have favoured decentralised energy and have a vision of each school hospital and home generating their own “electricity” according to their website but I hope that they also mean to include heat energy as well as electrical energy in this vision.
They have also suggested a new system of feed in tariffs; here i think that are making the same mistake as the existing Government; feed in tariffs are costly and cumbersome way to encourage micro generation and they are only necessary because for anyone considering installing microgeneration they get their financial savings at the lowest marginal rate under existing tariffs.
By inverting the tariff pyramid there would be much greater incentives for folk to save money by installing heat microgeneration. Electrical power microgeneration has less opportunity for savings by inverting the price pyramid (although there is some scope) because electricity when generated cannot be stored and must be fed into a grid which may not need it.
The other parts of the policy that have been published do not provide details; there is an idea that every home would be entitled to £6,500 worth of measures for energy efficiency; it is unclear whether these would include renewable energy generation, which is costly. It makes sense to include this because a home owner, investing in micro generation provides benefits in emissions savings and pollution savings to the whole community.
No doubt some group of people in the Conservative Party are defining and working on filling in the missing bits of policy. I hope they are. Energy policy will be the most important long term job in the next Government and it is important to start with a viable thought out and connected energy policy as a means of supplying the beery we need with the least emissions possible.
Filed under: carbon dioxide, climate change, electricity, energy, global warming, heat, microgeneration, pollution, renewables | Tagged: genersys, conservative party energy, policy
Approaching the environment is partly about energy policy, actually I am in favour of Labour’s work here. But it is also about managing rural affairs; farming techniques, rural communities and the role of our countryside, forests and national parks.
Here Labour have virtually neglected the environment and I hope the Conservatives are better placed to deliver.