ASHLEY Fox MEP needs to do his research more carefully.

When he says "The energy market needs to be able to function without state subsidy", (Courier, January 10), he overlooks the fact that fossil fuels, eg coal and gas, currently receive £4.3 billion a year through direct and indirect subsidies and tax breaks according to figures by the Overseas Development Institute. And the UK ranks fifth in the world in terms of support to fossil fuels.  

Nuclear power, which is being pursued by the Government as the solution to the energy crisis, will involve the taxpayer paying £260 per annum for the costs of storage of waste material.  

Does he suggest all these subsidies are done away with?

Wind farms have a crucial role to play as part of a mix of renewables.

Of course, care needs to be taken about where they are sited but in terms of energy generated in relation to energy required for manufacture and installation, they are very efficient.

And any new form of energy generation needs support.   

Around 87 per cent of global human-made carbon emissions derive from fossil fuels, so if we are to have any success in tackling climate change, fossil fuel use needs to be radically curtailed.

Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have been seeing the results of global warming for many years in terms of increased droughts, flooding and tropical storms.  

And we are now seeing the effects in the UK in our increasingly erratic weather patterns.  

Scientists tell us that the Earth is on a trajectory for four degrees warming if emissions are not cut, risking unprecedented heatwaves, droughts, floods and other impacts on humans and ecosystems.

How much do we care about the future we bequeath to our children and grandchildren?

Gerald Conyngham

Member of the core group of Sustainable Crediton

By emai