WATCHING David Cameron’s government ripping up environment policy, it’s hard to believe the Tory party ever used the slogan “Vote blue, go green”.

Indeed the revelation that the Prime Minister later ordered officials to “get rid of all the green crap” is more believable. It’s a fair description of the slew of policy announcements over recent weeks.

It’s long been expected that wind energy subsidies would be gradually reduced, as the technology improves and the price of the electricity it generates becomes competitive with other sources. But Cameron’s government has prematurely announced the complete ending of subsidies for new onshore wind. It has also cut back on support for solar energy, which has enormous potential but which the market alone won’t deliver. Even more extraordinarily, they have decided to apply the Climate Change Levy to renewable energy, effectively hammering green energy for the pollution created by other sources.

At the same time they have ended both the Green Deal, leaving no significant policy for reducing energy demand and fighting fuel poverty. It needed serious improvement, but they have put nothing in its place at all. The commitment to Zero Carbon Homes has also been scrapped. Vehicle Excise Duty is being switched to a flat rate, instead of being based on vehicle pollution levels, and the Edinburgh-headquartered Green Investment Bank is being privatised in a move which has given rise to concerns not only within environment NGOs, but also in the business press.

All these announcements will have a serious impact on Scotland’s renewable energy industry and on greenhouse gas emissions. The UK Government appears to have done nothing to assess the impact of these changes, and many of them have been announced during the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess, giving us no chance to object.

With such a lack of commitment coming from the UK Government, even in relation to climate change target they themselves voted for, there are going to be huge problems for Scotland, and for local councils, in fulfilling their responsibilities.

This isn’t just a short term problem, delaying progress toward abstract targets. It means scaring off much needed investment in a greener future, and we’ll miss out on high quality, long terms jobs as other countries steal a march on the green economy.

I’ve called on the key committees at Holyrood to commission research into the impact of these changes, but that can’t happen until next month at the earliest. The longer we wait, the more we risk missing out on the opportunities in front of us. It’s a scandal that the Tory government is so being reckless with our economy, our environment, and with the lives of people in fuel poverty across Scotland and the UK.