Families will be paying £600 a year towards green energy projects within the next seven years, a study for the Civitas think-tank has found. The report said the cost of hitting European Union targets on green energy is likely to be more than £16 billion by 2020. This includes the cost of subsidies for wind [...]

Green energy subsidies will cost every British household £600 a year by 2020, a leading industry analyst warns in a Civitas paper published today. The cost to consumers of pursuing EU renewables targets is set to rise above £16 billion per annum, when VAT is taken into account, Dr John Constable writes in Are Green [...]

A North East writer and aristocrat has warned of a jobs threat to the North East if rising energy bills are not tackled. Viscount Matt Ridley used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to say that jobs lost at a Northumberland aluminium smelter this year would be among many to go abroad if the [...]

THE leader of the Scottish ­Government review of landownership yesterday pledged to examine ways of redistributing the cash wealthy lairds make from wind farms to benefit the less-advantaged.  Alison Elliot, chair of the Land Reform Review Group (LRRG), said the issue would be investigated amid concerns that aristo­crats are benefiting from the renewables revolution while [...]

WIND FARM operators in Scotland have been paid nearly £6 million over the past 33 days not to generate electricity, more than was paid out for the whole of last year. Campaigners claim there has never been a longer period of consecutive payments and are continuing to call for the energy regulator to investigate. The [...]

Britain is on track to “accelerate” its shale gas programme, according to Michael Fallon, the energy minister, as he confirmed a new licensing round for oil and gas explorers will take place next year. Britain is on track to “accelerate” its shale gas programme, according to Michael Fallon, the energy minister, as he confirmed a [...]

Rising energy bills amid a squeeze on household incomes are prompting thousands of families to cut back on energy use  with fuel poverty now affecting one in three in Wales. Householders in parts of Wales are cutting back on their energy use more than almost every other part of the UK amid escalating energy prices, [...]

 A melt of ice on Greenland and Antarctica is likely to be less severe than expected this century, limiting sea level rise to a maximum of 69 cm (27 inches), an international study said on Tuesday. Even so, such a rise could dramatically change coastal environments in the lifetimes of people born today with ever more severe storm surges and erosion, [...]