Climate Change: Does UK Government Get It?

At the end of this month, all nations will be meeting in Paris to sort out a climate change agreement.

The signs are good: The U.S. and China seem fully committed; Australia and Canada now have themselves prime ministers who aren't climate deniers; and many nations are putting in some bold promises.

However, the UK government seems to be going backwards. They may say they're fully committed to fighting climate change but they seem hell-bent on rolling back just about any scheme that helps cut carbon. Here are some examples of what they've done or plan to do:

• Blocking onshore wind energy.
• Blocking solar in the countryside
• Cutting industrial solar subsidy
• Cutting biogas subsidy
• Cutting biomass subsidy
• Cutting domestic solar subsidy
• Ending Green Deal (Low interest loans to home owners who want to be more energy efficient)
• Ending the Green Deal's far more successful predecessor (Included subsidies for roof insulation)
• Scrap requirement that all new homes be zero carbon.
• Cut zero carbon offices
• Put carbon tax on renewables!
• Tax breaks for the oil and gas industry 
• Increase the subsidy for diesel generators
• Freeze fuel duty escalator (to make driving progressively more expensive, encouraging drivers to move away from gas guzzlers).
• Increasing tax on small cars
• Cut support for community energy schemes
• Sell off the Green Investment Bank

Does all this strike you as the program of a government "fully committed to fighting climate change"? The most charitable interpretation is that they have a somewhat short-sighted, cost cutting agenda which trumps all other considerations.

Let's hope that the coming climate deal encourages our useless government to get it's priorities straight: We need to start investing in the future.