Please help stop the madness

Can you spare 2 minutes of your day to help stop the crazy idea of renewable energy in the UK being put up to 20% VAT?

High carbon fossil fuels would remain at 5% VAT - if anything it should be the other way around. 

The UK is planning to put VAT up to 20% on renewable energy installations like solar PV and the wood pellet boilers which we supply. At the same time fossil fuels like heating oil will remain at 5%.

Already the grants which support renewables have either been reduced or removed. For example the solar Feed In Tariff (FIT) has been removed and replaced with something called an Export Guarantee. All that basically says is: you are allowed to sell the extra electricity you produce. Which you'd kind of think would be a given anyway. 

It offers nothing in terms of minimum pricing.

That sort of free-market approach might be fine if it was a level playing field. But its not.

Fossil fuel prospecting is subsidised by the UK by around 10 billion a year. That's over £300 for each working person a year and lets face it its not like the fossil giants need a helping hand.

Many other EU countries do exactly the same.

Neither do fossil fuels pay for their impact on climate change for example by the addition of a carbon tax. If those two things were sorted in a more rational, helpful way then the “we are leaving it up to you” approach might be okay. I still wouldn't think it was okay actually but lets veer aside from politics, helping mitigate climate change is a mission which makes so much sense that it should easily step over political lines. And the transition to renewables is one part of that.

As it stands the field is very much weighted in fossil's favour. At a time when people are really starting to realise that we need to act now and the whole country (as well as many councils) have declared a climate & environmental emergency this all seems positively unhelpful to the cause and very much as if our official leaders are batting for the other side.

So can you spare 2 minutes to sign the petition to NOT put up another hurdle to in the path of climate change mitigation?