Until fairly recently, before the government bail out for the credit markets, £13 billion was a lot of money.  Although in terms of headline grabbing sums £13 billion has had its day it is nonetheless a great deal and a recent, first of its kind study, suggests that a large scale programme of both energy efficiency and renewable technologies could save that annually in saving on imports of fossil fuels.  

The report was carried out for the Renewable Energy Association (REA) and looks at the upside of renewables and not just the cost.  Although we have tough targets to get 15% of the UK's energy needs from sustainable sources by 2020 we still lag behind most of Europe.  This adds to the argument that taking carbon out of the economy has not got to be at the expense the economy.  The Chancellor is expected to announce £500m of "green" spending tomorrow so watch this space!