If the coalition government is serious about being the "greenest government ever," it needs to provide the right conditions for investment, whether that is via a Green Investment Bank or support for the solar PV industry, the Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion said today.
In her weekly blog for the Guardian, Caroline Lucas said that: "Innovation and entrepreneurship by the business community will be at the heart of the transition to a low carbon and sustainable economy. But if we are to create the right conditions to foster such a transition, the government must engage better with business by showing more clarity, consistency, and certainty than it is right now."
Lucas pointed out that, in Germany, "Green Deal-type loans for energy efficiency are subsidised through the government's equivalent to a Green Investment Bank. This brings interest rates down to low single figures. Unless we do that here, take up is expected to be woefully low."
She added that: "The government's review of FITs for all solar PV above 50 kW, the size of an average school installation, has effectively pulled the rug out from under the industry, creating significant job uncertainty in one of the few industries to create thousands of new jobs in the UK in the past ten months."
You can read the full article on the Guardian's website here.
You can also read the section of our 2010 general election manifesto on "managing the economy" here.