Abandoning green policies like making buildings more energy efficient contradicts the aims of the Conservative manifesto and should be reconsidered, according to NGOs.
Ten environmental campaign groups, including the Green Alliance, the RSPB, Greenpeace and WWF have written to David Cameron warning that recent actions by ministers will ruin chances of achieving the climate pledge he signed in February, and the Tories’ manifesto pledge to “leave the natural environment of England in a better state than that in which we found it”.
Cancelled policies include: achieving zero-carbon standards for homes by 2016 and non-domestic buildings by 2019; the green deal home energy efficiency policy; and support for onshore wind and solar power. Others have been weakened, such as differential vehicle excise duty, while pledges to outlaw shale gas exploration in protected areas and a absolute ban on the use of neonicotinoids have been reversed.
“These policies were developed over many years, often with cross party backing, and with the support and involvement of many businesses and charities… We have, as yet, seen no positive new measures that would restore the health of the environment or grow the low carbon economy,” the letter states.
Only one of the cancelled policies, to end support for onshore wind, was in the Conservative manifesto, the NGOs point out.
The letter also expresses concern about the fate of government departments charged with protecting the environment: “The two departments which are most able to deliver your environmental agenda, Decc and Defra, are unprotected and at risk from disproportionate reductions in their staffing, because their budgets are dominated by large non-discretionary activities such as nuclear decommissioning and flood prevention.”