Power politics

摘要

Sandwiched in a file of press cuttings in the reception of Solar Century's Waterloo offices is a letter from prime minister Tony Blair. It thanks the company's founder and CEO, Jeremy Leggett, for a recent tour of the building, during which the prime minister witnessed solar power at work first hand. But despite the PM's recent visit, it quickly becomes clear that Leggett is disappointed with the government's approach to energy issues. "The government is not joined up in its policy making and seems pretty unembarrassable about the gulf between its rhetoric about global warming and what it is actually doing about it," he says. "If you accept, as so many of us now do, that global warming is the number one threat to a survivable future, then energy should be treated accordingly. Energy should be the first thing anybody thinks about in policy and the government should deliver on the things it said in the energy white paper."