Commenting on Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne's speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference today [Tuesday 21 September 2010], Friends of the Earth's Parliamentary campaigner Martyn Williams said:

"Chris Huhne is right to say that being the greenest government ever is a necessity - but the real challenge is whether he can deliver these ambitious plans when his coalition partners are poised to slash his budget in next month's spending review.

"There are already concerns that Treasury cuts could hit existing policies to support renewable heat and electricity, as well as energy efficiency programmes like the Warm Front scheme.

"Huhne is going to have his work cut out to ensure these bold plans become reality - how green this Government really is will be put to the test in the spending review and Energy Bill."

 Friends of the Earth is calling for:
•    guaranteed funding of at least £2 billion a year for the Green Investment
Bank;
•    Government intervention to make it easier to develop offshore wind in
ports;
•    the feed-in tariff scheme to be kept intact and the Renewable Heat
Incentive introduced in April 2011 as promised;
•    the Government to ensure emissions from power stations are capped with an
Emissions Performance Standard in the forthcoming Energy Bill;
•    Local carbon budgets for every council area to help them cut carbon
emissions;
•    The Government to guarantee there is no public subsidy for new nuclear
power stations;
•    No more polluting incinerators to be built;
•    Ending further high risk deep sea drilling for North Sea oil.