Cameron must intervene in carbon row, say businesses and campaigners | Fiona Harvey and Terry Macalister

Without the right policies, the UK will lose green energy jobs, renewable energy industry warns warring ministers A chorus of businesses, politicians and green campaigners have called on the prime minister, David Cameron, to intervene in a deepening row over the government’s climate change targets , as warring departments have put the UK’s future emissions cuts in jeopardy. The call came as the renewable energy industry called on ministers to “put up or shut up”, after Vestas, the world’s leading wind turbine maker, dangled the possibility of creating more than 2,000 green energy manufacturing jobs in the UK – but only if the right policies were set up. The worsening Whitehall row over whether to accept the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change – which would entail a 50% emissions cut by 2027, based on 1990 levels – threatens to derail the government’s promise to be “the greenest ever”, just before the first anniversary of the pledge this weekend. Vince Cable, Lib Dem business secretary, has taken the unusual step of writing to Nick Clegg to call for a lower target . But a lower target would imperil jobs and growth, said Andrew Raingold, executive director of the Aldersgate Group of more than 30 large businesses. “David Cameron should intervene and show clear leadership. Cable’s view that jobs and growth don’t go with green targets is misguided: there is clear evidence to show stronger targets would stimulate jobs.” Huw Irranca-Davies, the shadow energy minister, said: “It needs David Cameron [to decide] – the sooner he does, the better.” These views were echoed by green campaigners. Martyn Williams of Friends of the Earth said: “Clearly, it is the job of the prime minister to settle this disagreement, and whether he accepts the recommended targets will be a test of his commitment.” Greenpeace is planning to send a team of huskies to the House of Commons on Friday, a satirical reminder of Cameron’s trip to the Arctic while in opposition. The carbon budget drawn up by the CCC, setting out the reductions that need to be made in the 2020s to meet the UK’s longer-term targets, was “robust and considered”, said David Kennedy, chief executive of the committee. He refused to be drawn on whether Cameron should intervene, but said: “We have given a very well-evidenced proposal and I am not aware of any other well-evidenced alternative that would be consistent with the Climate Change Act. We urge the government to accept our recommendation.” The renewables industry, which is likely to be the source of many of the promised green jobs, is also deeply concerned about future government policy. Turbine-maker Vestas signed a deal on Wednesday to develop land – the equivalent of 93 football pitches – on which it wants to construct a huge new North Sea turbine production facility at Sheerness in Kent. But it said the project would go ahead only if ministers took decisive action to help. “Before our customers can provide us with the needed order pipeline, they need stability in the market and a long-term political and regulatory certainty that ensures their business case,” said Anders Søe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore. “Making that happen lies in the hands of policymakers, so we are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind market to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality,” he added. The Vestas executive said the timing of a report from the government-established CCC on Monday , which raised questions about the high cost of offshore wind, “could not be worse for us.” Søe-Jensen warned it would be a “shame” if a great new job opportunity at Sheerness was lost. The report suggested that offshore wind might be more expensive than nuclear power, but was rebuffed by the renewables industry, which said the figures did not take account of the very high cost of dealing with nuclear waste. The industry lobby group, RenewableUK , said it was now time for ministers to stop the debate about offshore wind and come down firmly in favour of pressing ahead. “We have an unprecedented situation where some of the best-known companies in the world are queuing up to invest in the UK. The government now needs to seal the deal on offshore: it needs to bag the first 8,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds already pledged, by firmly supporting the technology,” said Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK. The same message came from Friends of the Earth. “Uncertainty over energy policy has put companies off investing in the UK for too long,” said Tony Bosworth, FoE’s national climate change campaigner. “To reassure investors, the government must guarantee long-term support for renewable energy and allow the new green bank to borrow money straight away so that it can help clean energy projects such as offshore wind farms to get off the ground now.” Vestas said it was still optimistic that it could obtain the orders from the deep-sea round 3 projects that would allow the Denmark-based company to build vast new turbines, which would be as big as the Gherkin office block in the City of London. Vestas has also built a new research and development centre on the Isle of Wight, but created controversy when it closed a facility for building smaller turbines in the summer of 2009 . The worldwide renewable energy sector has been facing tougher times as politicians worry about bigger budget cutbacks and seek to reduce subsidies to wind and solar, despite a continuing desire to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming. But there was a boost on Tuesday from Japan, where the prime minister promised to scrap a plan to obtain half its electricity from nuclear power and said it would promote renewable energy as a result of its nuclear crisis. Naoto Kan said Japan needed to “start from scratch” on its long-term energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by an earthquake on 11 March, and began leaking radiation. A United Nations report out earlier this week predicted that, if the regulatory and other conditions were right, renewables could provide nearly 80% of the world’s energy needs after 2050. Wind power Energy Renewable energy Energy industry Terry Macalister Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk

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