1.) Taken us backwards on Climate change

When Cameron first came to power in 2010, he promised that his government would be the "greenest government ever." What a load of bullshit.

Following the election in may, Cameron appointed Amber Rudd to the position of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. This is somebody who can 'understand' the conspiracy that the voices calling for action on climate change are doing so as part of an 'anti-growth, anti capitalist' plot. It was also revealed by Private Eye that her brother Roland's Lobbying company represents a construction firm with a potential £100 million contract for the construction of a Nuclear power plant, the decision on its construction rests with Amber.

So far, not looking like the ideal Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, but what has been done since the Conservative majority in may?

• An end for onshore wind subsidies:

Rudd scrapped the subsidies for wind farms a year earlier than planned claiming it was time for the industry to stand "on it's own two feet." Katja Hall of the Confederation of British Industry slammed this as "a blow to the industry" and "damaging" to Britain's reputation. 

     

• A fast track for Fracking:

Fracking is a controversial issue in the UK. This method of extracting shale gas is heavily pushed by the Conservatives, despite the uncertainties and risks involved. Even if we ignore these, the claim that this Government is committed to reducing our carbon emissions is destroyed by their eagerness to start burning this fossil fuel on a much larger scale.

    Local authorities have faced a lot of opposition to opening up their land to fracking, and now the Conservatives plan to reduce the time they have to consider applications.On top of this, there are plans for fracking applications to be decided by government ministers, rather than the local authorities in the affected areas. 

    Finally, the decision was made for fracking to now be permitted in Sites of Special Scientific Interest, despite a pledge not to. In total, 1000 square miles have been opened up to fracking including much of North Yorkshire, the North west and the East Midlands.

• Scrapped the plan for Carbon neutral homes.

Introduced by Gordon Brown in 2006, the idea was to have all homes producing renewable energy such as Solar on site, whilst tightening up energy efficiency standards. Definitely the wrong direction to be going in whilst real progress is being made in this area.

    This government has also scrapped a scheme to help people insulate their homes to avoid energy being wasted.

So all in all, a bleak outlook for those hoping that our Husky-hugging Prime Minister might take the issue of climate change seriously. Still, at least it's one of those issues that we can afford to put on the back burner for a few years...