Commenting on the results of the capacity auction announced this morning, which has seen millions of consumer-funded subsidies going to polluting diesel farms and coal plants, Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said:
"The energy secretary is in the thick of crucial climate talks in Paris yet her department has just lavished million-pound subsidies on some the dirtiest energy sources on the planet. With the exception of the coal phase-out, the gap between what this government preaches and what it actually does on climate and energy keeps getting wider and wider. A 21st-century advanced economy like Britain shouldn't have to rely on pop-up diesel farms and moribund coal plants to keep the light on. We need a modern, flexible, clean energy infrastructure, and ministers should get down to work on it."
ENDS
- Greenpeace has calculated that just one energy company, set up earlier this year, has won contracts worth over £35m to build new diesel farms
- The Guardian reports this morning diesel farms walked away from the auction with subsidy contracts worth £150m
