FEED-IN TARIFFS AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

That this House underlines the importance of demonstrating a strong commitment to policies to tackle climate change in the run-up to negotiations in Copenhagen; reiterates its welcome for the inclusion of feed-in tariff legislation in the Energy Act 2008; notes the strong support for this legislation from a wide variety of businesses, environmental, consumer and fuel poverty groups, trade unions, farmers and social landlords; further notes the huge technical potential for sub-5 megawatt decentralised renewable technologies to deliver up to one third of the UK's electricity; believes that decentralised energy could make a considerable contribution to cutting the UK's carbon emissions, tackling fuel poverty, increasing energy security and generating green jobs; is concerned that tariffs proposed for the Government's Clean Energy Cashback scheme will mean decentralised renewable electricity is anticipated to contribute just two per cent. of the UK's electricity by 2020; considers this to be a wholly inadequate level of ambition; supports calls for a suitably ambitious tariff which delivers a significantly higher return on investment; and therefore calls on the Government to revise the proposed tariffs substantially, to increase the level of ambition of the scheme and offer communities, households and businesses a significant role in driving UK renewable energy deployment.