Government criticised on funding of green energy

The Times
May 15, 2009

Robin Pagnamenta, Energy and Environment Editor

Government claims that it is leading a green energy revolution were condemned after it emerged that funding for five prominent environmental initiatives had been cut by 25 per cent this year.
Details of funding for the organisations, which include the Energy Savings Trust (EST), the Waste and Resources Action programme (Wrap), the Carbon Trust, the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) and Envirowise, surfaced in a parliamentary answer from Joan Ruddock, a junior minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
They show that the five organisations would receive £68 million less from the Government this year than they did during 2008, a drop of more than 25 per cent from £270 million to £202 million. The figures show funding for Envirowise, which offers businesses advice on reducing the waste they send to landfill, as well as on water and energy use, more than halved from £22 million to £9 million.
Funding for NISP, which helps companies to identify new uses for waste products, including as raw materials for other industries, was cut from £10 million to £5 million. Wrap, which works to increase recycling levels among UK businesses and households, had its funding trimmed from £62 million to £43 million.

Greg Clark, the Conservative energy spokesman, said: “What the market needs is long-term certainty. This sort of stop-start funding is anathema to any business trying to establish itself in these key industries.”
Martin Horwood, energy spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said that such “huge budget cuts” were undermining Britain's plans to improve sustainability and cut its emissions.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which oversees Wrap, NISP and Envirowise, claimed that a general increase in public understanding of green issues had led to the funding cuts. “The support we offer is now focused on providing the necessary evidence to encourage businesses to change their behaviour, rather than financially supporting individual business projects,” the spokesman said.
A spokesman for DECC, which supports the Carbon Trust and EST, acknowledged that there had been an overall drop in government support for the groups. However, the spokesman said that EST's cut was because of a failure on its part to secure contracts that public sector bodies had put out to tender.
Cuts at the Carbon Trust were the result of an anomaly, the spokesman said. “Carbon Trust funding has increased year-on-year since the Trust was set up in 2001. We expect the upward trend to continue, particularly in light of the Budget which announced an additional £165 million for loans to SMEs and the public sector.”