Consultations

Given that we have the best renewable resources in the European Union, the fact that Britain languishes near the bottom of the European renewables league table is pretty humiliating.

On Monday though, the International Energy Agency added insult to injury. Britain's renewables strategy, it said, is 'ineffective' and 'very expensive'. The agency's new report (published here, but you have to pay) ranks Britain 31st out of 35 countries - "including all the major industrial nations such as the US, Germany and China" - in its green energy cost league. And our 'renewables effectiveness', it says, is a paltry three per cent.

When you make a mistake, you tend to learn from the experience so you can avoid making similar blunders in the future. Not so the current government which, if it backs a new generation of nuclear power stations, could once again find itself at odds with the law.

Back in February, we took the government to the High Court over its first attempt to hold a public consultation on the future of nuclear power. The court found in our favour, ruling that the consultation was "unlawful" and "seriously flawed". It forced ministers back to the drawing board for a second consultation but once again it's been shaped and guided by a predetermined outcome: the UK will have new nuclear power stations. Members of the public who attended the consultation meetings posted messages on this site about how they felt attendees were lead into finding in favour of nuclear power.