Friends of the Earth Say Households Need Better Incentives to Go Green

According to some new research and a survey done by Friends of the Earth, consumers believe that more needs to be done by the government to promote the use of microgeneration technology. The survey that was conducted by the group found that 64 percent of people believed that the government’s plans for renewable energy were not ambitious enough.

Plans are due to be announced soon for the clean energy cash bank scheme. This is a scheme, which would pay households premium rates for any green energy that they produce. The executive director of Friends of the Earth, Andy Atkins, said that bigger government incentives are needed to encourage people. Andy Athinks went on to say that ministers must listen and introduce an ambitious feed in tariff scheme that will encourage millions of households, companies and communities to take part in this scheme. They have to encourage everyone in the UK to join together to help support the green energy revolution.

The results of the survey also showed that 71 percent of households would think about installing micrgeneration technology if the benefits were high enough. Dong King, who recently wrote a report on carbon emissions for the Royal Academy of Engineering, said that microgeneration technology was nothing more than eco bling, meaning that miniature wind turbines would do very little to cut greenhouse gases. All it really did was make it look like that house was doing its part to go green. However, if houses are not built with things like more insulation and whatnot, then this microgeneration technology will do very little to help.