It was refreshing to see so much attention being paid to the Energy sector in the Autumn Budget.
With the Paris climate talks only days away, it had already been discussed in PMQs before the Spending Review was announced when Jeremy Corbyn tackled David Cameron on the issue of solar job cuts and meeting the 2020 climate change target.
Cameron responded by repeatedly claiming that renewable generation had trebled over the last Parliament, harking back to the successes of the Green Investment Bank and EU Climate Change funding commitments.
The Autumn Budget did not shy away from the subject of renewables, despite opposition criticism surrounding subsidy cuts.
Osborne promised a doubling of low-carbon and renewables funding, and vowed to increase funding by 50% at the Paris talks.
The RHI will continue to run (but it will be reformed to save £700m) and he proudly announced that 24 million homes would be helped to ‘go green’ while keeping energy bills low, saving domestic homes £30 a year on average.
However, despite waving the green flag, Osborne also announced a doubling of funding into small nuclear reactor research and spoke of a community shale wealth fund of up to £1bn to continue exploration of fracking opportunities, which environmental campaigners may not be best pleased about.
Furthermore, heavy industry will now be permanently exempt from environmental tariffs in order to keep running costs low and keep industry in the UK.
While this may not be ideal, the more pressing issue of steel industry decline makes this a necessity.
Green campaigners will also not be best pleased at the cuts announced for department funding.
The Environment department will see day-to-day spending cuts of 15% & the Department of Energy & Climate Change will see day-to-day cuts of 22%. However, this comes with cuts to departments across the board, so it should not be exaggerated.
It is promising that energy is now a more substantial part of the agenda and the Paris talks will only ever increase the debates around our green responsibilities.
Phil Foster is managing director at business energy comparison website Love Energy Savings
