Environmental legislation 'needs financial support to help green energy sector'

The government needs to provide more financial support to environmental legislation in order to help the green energy market, according to one opinion.

David Powell, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said the coalition's plans for a green investment bank requires billions of pounds if it is to be powerful and effective at supporting new environmentally-friendly technologies.

Mr Powell stated: "We need billions; we need at least figures ranging [from] £200 billion up to half a trillion, maybe even more than that desperately, in our energy infrastructure."

He went on to say a proper capitalised bank needs to be established to get the fund off the ground, with an initial investment of more than £4 billion.

This comes after the Environmental Audit Committee reported last week that if the government does not give full support to its plans for a green investment bank, the UK could lose billions of pounds worth of investment in the sector.

Posted by Claire Manning