5 things you need to know about the Tories’ energy and climate policies

1. The Tories’ energy and climate agenda is in a mess – and yesterday it got worse

At their conference in Manchester the Tories desperately needed to re-set their approach to energy and climate change.

Since the election the government has cut, delayed and scrapped multiple energy schemes putting jobs and investment at risk, setting back our efforts to tackle climate change.

Before yesterday everyone knew the Tories’ green agenda was a mess, but in their speeches George Osborne and Amber Rudd failed to reassure anyone that they even understood the problem, let alone had a plan to put it right.

2. The Tories are not helping to bring down energy bills

Yesterday, Amber Rudd said she wanted to put the consumer in charge of energy policy. The  Conservatives say they want to deliver climate policy at the lowest cost to consumers, but in reality they are doing the opposite.

By making it much more difficult to build onshore wind and solar, the two cheapest forms of lower carbon available, they have left important but more expensive technologies like offshore wind, nuclear power and tidal to pick up the slack.

The real terms cut in the number of homes to be insulated means more families will be left in the cold this winter, and paying out more for their bills.

And just last week the Tories announced they were pressing ahead with plans to build a £24 billion nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. The proposed deal would sign up families and businesses across the country to pay double the current wholesale price of electricity for 35 years to subsidise the large Chinese and French backed energy companies who are behind the project.

It’s on course to be the most expensive conventional power station ever built anywhere in the world. Not only will this impact on energy bills, but the cost of this deal may be shouldered by the most vulnerable in society, leaving pensioners and families on low incomes facing sky-high energy bills.

3. The Tories are risking our energy security

After weeks of chopping and changing, we now face an energy security crisis.  This winter, British energy reserves will be at such low levels we could be forced to buy in emergency supplies. The Government is risking the country’s energy security, and once again allowing families and businesses to be ripped off by energy decisions beyond their control.

4. The Tories are undermining the green economy

Ideological opposition to renewable energy is blinding the Conservatives to the global opportunities for Britain. Renewable energy costs are tumbling, and combined with digital technology this is disrupting the old model of energy consumption and production and creating a new world of clean, smart power. The Conservatives have no plan to build the skills, secure the investment and market the products associated with this new energy economy.  We are falling behind.

Both the CBI and EY have condemned the government’s chaotic policy-making for destroying investor confidence and blocking low carbon energy infrastructure.  The Government has ignored every warning from British industry and systematically undermined investment in onshore wind and solar.  What has been a British industrial success story is being undermined.

Investors still lack the clarity and stability they need in order to get on with building the infrastructure we need to prosper. No wonder they are turning their backs on Britain.

5. The Tories are not leading on the world stage

The Paris Summit in December is an historic opportunity. It has the potential to give a transformational signal to investors and businesses around the world that the age of polluting energy is over and that the transition to a new, clean, energy model is inevitable, irreversible and universal.

With our global ties, our dynamism and our expertise, Britain is uniquely placed to offer leadership. But instead, our ministers are failing people at home and overseas. Al Gore has criticised the UK Government for lacking leadership, and Obama says he is having to drag the world behind him to get a deal in Paris.

As we approach what could be one the most historic summits in history, the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary appears not to have noticed. Amber Rudd failed to mention the landmark Paris Summit even once in her speech to Tory conference. Labour helped build the road to Paris. We will not let the UK abandon its leadership role without a fight.