Local MP Alex Cunningham has joined green campaigners and a solar-powered hot air balloon outside Parliament to show his support for clean, green heat for businesses and homes.
Along with farmers, businesses and many other organisations, Alex is calling on the Government to honour its promise to bring in a Renewable Heat Incentive that would encourage people to switch to planet-friendly heating.
During the last Government, all parties pledged to introduce this incentive in April 2011, but now reports suggest it could be delayed or watered down in the 20th October spending review.
Delay is already damaging the UK’s infant renewable heat industry as a lack of strong Government commitment makes potential investors nervous.
Alex Cunningham MP said:
“Heating our homes and businesses shouldn’t heat the planet – encouraging clean, green heat is essential if we’re to cut climate-changing carbon emissions. I’m backing a Renewable Heat Incentive that will create jobs and help people save money on fuel bills.”
Friends of the Earth’s Renewable Energy Advisor Alan Simpson said:
“It’s great that MPs like Alex Cunningham are supporting the switch to planet-friendly ways of heating our homes and workplaces. The Government must prove its claim to be the greenest ever is not just hot air, and introduce the Renewable Heat Incentive as promised.”
Key facts:
- Heating is responsible for almost half (47%) of the UK’s climate-changing emissions, mostly from heating rooms and water in homes and workplaces.
- The Renewable Heat Incentive could cut carbon emissions by 60 million tonnes in a decade – that’s the equivalent of taking almost 2.5 million cars off the road every year for ten years.
- The UK is committed to producing 12 per cent of heat from renewable sources by 2020 – it is currently just 1 per cent.
