UK's low-carbon spending cuts: Penny wise but ...

If the new coalition government in the UK is serious about building a green economy for the nation, why on earth is it now choosing to cut £34 million from the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s (DECC) low-carbon technology budget?

We imagine it was to be expected that spending cuts on green initiatives were certain to follow the coalition’s £6.2 billion government spending austerity programme, announced in May. But if austerity measures seem like a bad idea while the still-wobbly economy is threatening a double-dip recession, cutbacks in the only sector that promises to create a vast number of new green jobs is a startlingly wrong move.

And look at what’s being cut:

• £3 million from closing the Low Carbon Buildings Fund early;
• £4.7 million by cancelling the final funding rounds of the Bio-Energy Capital Grants Scheme and the Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme;
• £1 million in funding for development of deep geothermal energy generation — a full 50-per cent reduction in spending on that programme;
• £700,000 by closing the £3 million Energy Saving Trust technology trials early;
• £2.9 million in reductions in the central government’s Low Carbon Technology Programme;
• £12.6 million in technology and business support funding cuts for the Carbon Trust; and
• £3 million in cuts by reducing the scope of the Offshore Wind Capital Grants Scheme.

While DECC notes it will still spend some £150 million-plus on low-carbon technologies this year, the cuts amount to a nearly 18.5 per cent reduction in investments in that area. All to save a minuscule 0.5 per cent of the spending targeted by the full austerity programme. Truly penny wise and pound foolish.

As Ed Miliband, the previous Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and now a candidate for Labour leader noted, “This is cutting support for green jobs and green industries at exactly the time we need it most … Climate change is the ultimate market failure and requires active government to shift our economy towards growth where the planet no longer pays the price. Instead this coalition have turned their backs on green industry.”

Indeed, we might also note it appears a bit cynical to make such an announcement on a Friday morning, the favoured time for releasing news one doesn’t want much coverage on.