Nick Clegg Delivers Speech on Green Growth

Deputy Prime Minister says growth can be green.

Last week the Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Nick Clegg MP, delivered a speech on the green economy, just a couple of weeks before the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon David Cameron MP, is expected to do the same. He stated that the Government is helping families to use less energy to cut their bills by ensuring that over £500 million is targeted at helping the poorest in society, through the Government’s home energy efficiency program. Clegg also spoke about how the Government is capitalising on the UK’s competitive edge in green industries, which in turn is attracting billions of pounds worth of outside investment as well as generating jobs.

Relating to green initiatives and growth, Clegg highlighted the point that those countries who are recovering well from the recession – Germany, China, Korea, Brazil – are investing heavily in low carbon industries and that “there is no choice between protecting the environment and growing the economy.” On the topic of valuing our natural resources and ecosystem services the Deputy Prime Minister said that he will be “pushing for greater protections for our natural assets,” when he represents the UK at the Rio+20 Summit in June this year. The Green Deal, Green Investment Bank and commercial scale Carbon Capture and Storage projects were emphasized as flagship green initiatives by the Coalition.

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