Negativity about decarbonising the economy from some politicians is bizarre - Andy Brown

Turn on the TV and there have been pictures of devastating floods in the centre of Beijing, British tourists fleeing in fear of their lives in Rhodes, and out of control wildfires in Canada. We are living at a time when the highest global temperatures ever have just been recorded, the average temperature of the whole of the Atlantic has shot up alarmingly and the formation of ice in the Antarctic has been so slow that it would have happened by chance once in every 13,000,000,000 years. We could do with a bit of ambition and enthusiasm for solutions.

Ask an environmentalist to come up with those solutions and almost all would prioritise measures which reduce consumption and cut costs. Insulating buildings isn’t the most glamorous of ideas but it works. A bit of up-front investment pays back quickly and anyone who makes that investment reduces demand and so helps to drive down prices for everyone else.

Second on my own list would be measures to reduce demand at times in the week when Britain’s energy grid is under the greatest pressure. Over the course of a normal week there is a huge variation in how much energy the country uses. It can peak at 30 terawatt hours and dip below 20 terawatt hours. The suppliers have to provide enough capacity to deal with the highs and that currently means having more power stations and burning more fossils that we need so that the lights stay on when everyone makes a cup of tea during a break in the football.

We now have the technology to even out the peaks and troughs and reduce the amount of power that would otherwise be needed. Part of the solution is as easy as changing pricing policy so that the suppliers heavily reduce the bills of anyone who uses power in the middle of the night whilst putting a premium on use at peak times. Electric cars would then have a sensible incentive to charge up when demand from other users is low.

The other solution is local battery storage. It currently costs around £2,000 to fit a high capacity battery storage unit into a home that can draw down power cheaply during times of low demand and supply all the likely needs of that home at expensive peak times. The price of those units is falling rapidly.

Obviously not everyone has the capital to be able to buy themselves new equipment or to better insulate their loft. They need government help. The cost of enabling large numbers of new people to invest to cut their bills is massively lower than the cost of building a new nuclear power station. Insulation and battery installation are solutions that take only months to produce results and they would reduce inflation. Building a new nuclear power station to meet peak demand costs seemingly endless billions, takes over a decade, produces the most expensive power that the nation uses and leaves us with a massive clean up problem.

The next quick and easy method of reducing the cost of living is to provide financial support to encourage people to generate electricity themselves. Solar panels are now a great way of saving money from your running costs. Provided that the individual or the organisation can afford the capital outlay.

During the early years of the Cameron coalition government there were good incentives to make this kind of investment. There was a very rapid surge in solar installation and in improved insulation. So rapid that he had a hissy fit about the speed with which the grants were being taken up.

The cheapest and quickest form of energy supply is onshore wind. The Conservative government deliberately introduced planning laws that made it virtually impossible to get onshore wind farms approved in order to gain popularity with party members who didn’t want them in their neighbourhood.

There are no serious moves in this country to get every school and hospital roof better insulated and fitted with solar panels so that we cut costs in the NHS and in education quickly and easily. Instead there has been a decision to lock the country into new fossil fuel projects that will keep burning for decades.

Good government is about making good choices. Our current one seems to have decided that there are more votes in launching an attack on green campaigners than there are in quietly getting on with the job of doing quick and easy things which will cut the cost of living and reduce CO2.

It is a tired and desperate government that decides to ignore promising investment opportunities and prefers instead to try and gain popularity by launching an attack on those who are trying to wean the nation off a dangerous over-dependence on fossil fuels.

Andy Brown is the North Yorkshire Councillor for Aire Valley.