UK: Climate Change Policies Expensive and Damaging for Industry, Study Shows

The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) has welcomed the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) study showing that the UK’s climate change policies are expensive relative to other major economies and damaging for UK industry.

REF has consistently argued since its creation in 2004 that UK’s renewable energy and low carbon policies are counterproductive, since the costs are unreasonably high and consequently unpersuasive to the rest of the world.

The 2020 EU Renewables target for the UK is both infeasible and unfair, and the short timescale requires an Express Service that is driving subsidy to unsustainable levels.

However, reducing the share of subsidy costs for industry by increasing the load on other consumers is not the way forward.

Dr Constable, director of REF, said: “Subsidising renewables to meet arbitrary EU targets is not only economically damaging, but also a very ineffective and wasteful way of encouraging the clean energy sector to become competitive.”

Dr Constable continued: “A German-style compensation package for industry would just transfer costs onto other consumers. We need to cut the climate policy costs themselves, which would reduce the burden on all consumers and provide an economically compelling example of low carbon development.” 

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Offshore WIND staff, July 15, 2012; Image: Vattenfall