Greg Barker calls for ‘unprecedented’ spend in green infrastructure

Over the next decade the UK needs a massive and unprecedented spend in green infrastructure, climate change minister Greg Barker told the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) reception at the House of Lords yesterday (5 July).


Promoting “the greenest government ever – one year on”, Barker said that investing in the green economy was essential to support current growth and also to foster sustainability in the future.

To meet this challenge, he said the Government would be reforming the electricity market and investing £110B in electricity generating infrastructure.

As part of the “greening” of the economy, the minister cited the launch of the renewable heat incentive and the £860M that has been put aside to support the growth of renewable heat.

“RHI will help take that industry of renewable heat from the very fringes of industry right into the mainstream,” he promised.

The minister’s comments came after the EIC and representatives from its working groups outlined the commission’s main policy and lobbying activities in a press conference.

On the issue of waste and resource management, Michael Lunn, EIC’s director of policy and public affairs, told the press delegates that the commission’s initial thoughts on Defra’s recently published Waste Review was that it lacked technical detail.

He said that the EIC would be meeting Defra this week to look at the finer details of the review and would then be publishing a formal response later in the month.

Lunn said: “One of the areas of great concern is about the delivery of waste infrastructure and the impact on the planning regime and how that will be delivered.”

Nick Warburton

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