News

If the government offered to pay you £1,000 a year for the next 25 years, in return for an up-front investment of £12,500, you'd snap it up in a second. Well, that's pretty much the deal on offer this week after the government finally revealed what it will pay those who install electricity generating solar panels – in and around their homes – through the new "Feed-in Tariffs" (FITs).

Today, after many months of delay, the government finally announced its detailed plans for the feed-in tariff. It is a huge disappointment for all of us who want to see communities taking control of their energy production.

The government drew back from a step-change in its proposed levels of support scheme for small-scale renewable energy schemes amid attacks by the Conservatives and campaigners for a lack of ambition.

The government will tomorrow publish the long-awaited levels of remuneration it will offer for renewable energy generated by households and communities and fed back into the national grid.

The public overwhelmingly support a much more ambitious scheme to push renewable energy for homes and communities, a new poll shows today ahead of a key government announcement next week.

Disappointment at the outcome of climate talks in Copenhagen (Financial, 15 January) must not distract from the urgent job of building a low-carbon economy in the UK. We believe the generation of small-scale renewable energy can make a substantial contribution to this objective, but are concerned by the lack of ambition of the government's proposed feed-in tariff scheme. This currently aims to generate just 2% of the UK's electricity from small-scale renewable sources by 2020.

The pre-budget report included some good climate measures, but nothing dramatic. It failed to increase green taxes, and instead increased national insurance contributions, which will make job creation more expensive and is a foolish move at a time of such high unemployment. And it made no mention of the expansion of Trident, which will cost at least £72bn and deliver no obvious security benefits. This money should be spent instead on the low-carbon transition.

How can the forthcoming assembly in Copenhagen (Comment, 27 November) possibly come to worthwhile agreements for slowing down climate change when any conceivable progress is bedevilled by blatant contradictions?

Ed Miliband's hopes of having a key government policy on renewable energy in place before the Copenhagen summit have been dashed by internal wrangling over the final levels at which so-called "feed-in tariffs" (FITs) will be set. Officials at Miliband's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have admitted that the announcement – originally due around now – will not come until January.

Wind turbines up to 15 metres high could be put up in industrial estates or farmland without planning permission under plans published by the government today.