Party conference season sees green battle lines drawn

The end of September and start of October can mean only one thing in the political world – party conference season.

For those weeks parliament rises for recess and the major parties decamp to cities outside of London, hoping to gather momentum for the crucial months ahead. Leading politicians take to the stage and key policy lines are put forward as party members and media alike are whipped up into a frenzy with an array of sideshows and guest appearances.

This year is of course no different. ‘Corbynmania’ is in full flow and new faces are looking to make their mark. What is perhaps different this time around is the amount of prime-time coverage that has been granted to the green economy.

This summer’s policy reset has loomed large over the clean energy sector. Proposals to cut the feed-in tariff and close RO support a year earlier than planned hang like the sword of Damocles over the PV market. Should it fall as it is expected to before the end of the year, up to 27,000 jobs could find themselves on the chopping board, according to the STA.

So it’s of little surprise that opposition parties have clung to the green economy as an easy stick to beat the Tories with.

It started with Tim Farron, the newly elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, who made specific mention of how difficult the last five months have been for those in the sector. “[It has been] difficult if you run a solar energy firm as your staff face unemployment because Mr Cameron decided to ditch the ‘green crap’,” Farron said.

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett also took the Tories to task during her keynote speech, claiming that politics was moving away from “the mantra of ‘greed is good, the environment doesn’t matter’ that rose with Margaret Thatcher and will fall with David Cameron”.

This week’s Labour conference saw the rhetoric ramped up a notch. Shadow secretary for business, innovation and skills Angela Eagle, a long time proponent of the green economy, questioned chancellor George Osborne’s assault on a sector that had been growing at 7% each year, far outstripping UK growth as a whole.

“Just last week the government was lambasted for abandoning this country’s leadership on the green economy putting billions in potential future export earnings at risk.

“This government has slashed support for the solar power sector and onshore wind at the same time as scrapping the Green Deal. This makes absolutely no sense,” Eagle said, referring to the decisions as a failure to support strategic industries.

Then Lisa Nandy gave her maiden speech as shadow energy secretary, lambasting the government for putting into place an energy policy which she labelled a “national scandal”.

“The Tories’ energy policy isn’t just putting the security of household budgets at risk, but our economic security too,” Nandy said, adding that David Cameron had overseen the UK losing its environmental credentials at a crucial time. “It’s left us relegated to the margins of the global conversation, while others set the agenda and the pace,” she added.

But talk is cheap, particularly from a politician, and the renewables industry need only look as far as the Conservative Party’s big reset of subsidies this summer for proof of that. Less than a month before the election former energy minister Matt Hancock told Solar Power Portal a future Conservative government would be a “strong supporter” of solar. One month after the election, support frameworks began to be felled. Energy secretary Amber Rudd spoke of sparking a “solar revolution” on the UK’s rooftops, only to pass down proposals effectively kneecapping PV deployment months after.

It’s all well and good waxing lyrical on solar’s benefits to assorted party members and media, but it’s in the House of Commons and its chambers where words will truly count. Given the vociferous backing solar has received publicly, you would have thought that more opposition MPs would be eager to sign Labour MP Roger Godsiff’s motion to reconsider sweeping cuts to the feed-in tariff. Just 19 MPs have backed the motion, a paltry 6% of opposition seats.

Parliament returns on 12 October, less than two weeks before the feed-in tariff consultation closes, and it will be the responsibility of opposition MPs to keep renewables on the agenda and push the Conservatives all the way. Only if this happens will the green economy – built on solid political foundations – continue to enjoy prime-time billing. Party conference season saw the green battle lines drawn; it’s now time for opposition parties to show their mettle.