Conservative blue to green for an atma not bhar bharat
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blue and yellow together and you get green. Few commentators could resist the line when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition came to power almost a year ago with the promise to be "the greenest government ever".
The pledge came as little surprise, given the records of the party leaders: David Cameron was the first Tory leader to make the environment a core election issue when he invited people to "vote blue, go green", and Nick Clegg was well aware that for Lib Dem voters the environment has long been a touchstone.
The green investment bank, which begins operations next year, was welcomed for providing £3bn in funding for green projects, but investors are disappointed that it will not issue green Isas or be able to borrow money until at least 2015. Feed-in tariffs for solar panels – where the government pays people for creating their own renewable energy – have been a resounding success, but the government now intends to cut them back, a decision that has led to legal action from solar companies. Flood defences were to be protected, Cameron had promised, but now are suffering severe budget cuts.
"It takes more than a husky ride to be a green prime minister," says Louise Hutchins of Greenpeace. "This government blew the chance to create a truly effective green investment bank, it's put key environmental regulations up for review in an ill-conceived war on so-called red tape, it has proposed billions in hidden subsidies for new nuclear power stations and presided over a sharp decline in renewable energy investment while offering licences for deepwater drilling in the face of the lessons from last year's BP disaster."
The green deal, by which householders can have their homes fitted to a high standard of energy efficiency then pay back the cost through instalments on their energy bills, will not come into force until late 2012, and ministers are confident it will be a big success. Even the green investment bank could yet change in its final form.
Shepherd says: "We will watch these policies with interest. The jury is still out."