News: Analysis
Mandate for change
Such is the heavy policy dependency of the renewables sector, James Higgins,
partner at Ecuity, explains just how much hangs on the outcome of next month’s
general election
Power trip: With the
strong possibility of a
hung parliament, smaller
parties such as the Greens
and UKIP could hold the
balance of power, with
wildly differing attitudes to
renewable energy
s the British electorate votes on
May 07, there will be plenty of
politicians whose livelihoods
and careers are at stake. Expect
thrills, spills and gaffes like never before with
the rise of the Greens and UKIP threatening
the established order, post coalition score
settling and the intense scrutiny of 24 hour
news and social media.
For those not politically active all of
this noise is either an irrelevance or at
best good entertainment. However the
renewables industry operates at the most
policy dependent end of one of the most
regulated sectors of the economy and like it or
not, the outcome has the potential to impact
upon livelihoods much further afield than
Westminster.
So let us start with the good news – on
February 14 this year all three mainstream
party leaders re-affirmed their commitment to
tackling climate change at home and abroad.
A
6 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
This commitment brokered by leading green
campaigners included a specific pledge to
‘’accelerate the transition to a competitive,
energy efficient, low carbon economy’’.
The consensus that climate change is
manmade and that the UK must undertake
activity to tackle it is enshrined in law through
the Climate Change Act 2008 and given
the leaders’ pledge I see no reasons for any
governing party or parties to divert from this
viewpoint during the next parliament.
The most obvious potential bad news
is of course the consensus that the budget
deficit remains the biggest challenge facing
the country. This means that despite the scale
of the energy challenge the UK faces, very
little additional funding is likely to be available
to support deployment of renewable and low
carbon technologies.
Turning to specific issues, the coalition
government has had something of a turbulent
ride on energy policy over the past five years.
Cash flow: Despite the need to tackle climate
change being enshrined in UK law, reducing the
budget deficit will limit low carbon funding from
the next government, whatever its colour, argues
James Higgins, Ecuity