CENTRAL DEVON MP Mel Stride has welcomed the announcement on Monday (29/06/20) of nearly £80 million of government investment to help cut carbon emissions from homes and energy-intensive businesses. The funding will be invested in a wide range of programmes, including pioneering heat networks and an innovative new programme to bring down the cost of retrofitting residential properties with the latest energy efficiency technologies. The funds announced today include £24 million for innovative projects to help develop energy efficient homes, £25 million for heat networks which reduce carbon and cut heating bills for customers, and £30 million towards the first phase of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which will help energy intensive manufacturers, like car factories and steel plants, to cut their carbon footprint.
Mr Stride, who chairs the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, said:
“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world and there is an opportunity as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic to make green jobs and green technology a far more central part of our economic strategy. This investment is something the Treasury Select Committee has pressed the Government on and is very welcome. We are also looking into green bonds as an approach to government debt financing.”
Before he entered Parliament in 2010 Mr Stride spent two years going into local schools with his 'One Tonne Green Challenge' - an initiative he founded to engage and educate our young people on the need to recycle and reduce our carbon footprint. He has also campaigned on plastic recycling and, in 2013, he helped to steer a major energy bill through the House of Commons which introduced strict carbon emissions targets.
