Environment and conservation groups representing millions of people have written to David Cameron to register their “major concern” at the cancellation or weakening of 10 green polices since he was re-elected.

This list of recent policy reversals is shocking, and shows disregard ... for the environment we all depend on.

The heads of the 10 groups, which include the National Trust, Greenpeace and the RSPB, said they were shocked and worried at the changes, and rated the Conservative government’s track record on nature and climate change as woeful.

Since May, the government has ended subsidies for wind and solar power, increased taxes on renewable energy, axed plans for zero carbon homes, and closed its flagship energy efficiency scheme without a replacement. It also made a U-turn on banning fracking in Britain’s most important nature sites, and lifted a ban in some parts of the country on pesticides linked to bee declines.

Stephanie Hilborne OBE, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, which represents 47 local wildlife groups across the UK, said: “This list of recent policy reversals is shocking, and shows disregard for the health and wellbeing of current and future generations, as well as for the environment we all depend on.”

The letter commends the prime minister for signing a joint pledge with Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg to take strong action on climate change, and for the Conservative manifesto’s commitment to improving the natural environment. But it warned the decisions made by his ministers in the last few weeks ran counter to both.

“We would encourage you to resolve some of the contradictions that have emerged between the stated intentions of government and the actions of your ministers in its first period in office,” the groups said in the letter, which was also signed by Friends of the Earth, WWF, the Wildlife Trusts, and the Campaign To Protect Rural England (CPRE).

We have, as yet, seen no positive new measures ...

They add that no new, positive policies have emerged to take the place of those scrapped or watered-down: “We have, as yet, seen no positive new measures that would restore the health of the environment or grow the low carbon economy.”

The groups note that only one of the changes, an end to subsidies for onshore wind farms, was in the Conservative manifesto. Others, such as changing the system of taxation for new cars so that from 2017 a Porsche will be taxed the same as a Prius after the first year, were announced in the summer budget by chancellor George Osborne.

The letter comes as some veterans of the green movement warn that this is the worst period for environmental policy they have seen in 30 years, and business leaders such as the head of Veolia’s UK operation warn ministers risk sending Britain “back to the dark ages”.

On Thursday, Swedish energy company Vattenfall said it was scrapping a planned windfarm in Lincolnshire, blaming the government’s changes to planning laws for increasing risk to the project.

Dame Helen Ghosh, director-general of the National Trust, described the recent policy changes as “worrying”. The CPRE’s chief executive, Shaun Spiers welcomed the government making better use of brownfield land but said: “its overall record on the environment has been woeful”.



The groups also warned that the scrapping of green schemes could undermine the UK’s leadership at the UN climate talks in Paris later this year.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “This is not the mandate this government put to the country in the general election. And it will be a hard sell to the international community at the climate talks in Paris at the end of the year.”

The president of the AA president, Edmund King, joined the criticism, telling BBC News of the car taxation changes: “If the government is serious about trying to get motorists to drive cleaner greener cars, this is really counter-productive.”

In a blogpost, the National Trust’s head of external affairs, Richard Hebditch, noted that it was unusual for the Trust to sign such a public letter, writing that: “there is a real danger that the debate on the environment becomes more and more polarised, with ministers allowing themselves to be portrayed as uncaring about the long-term health of our countryside and climate, and a conservation and environmental movement that ends up opposing government policy more generally. That situation would suit neither the Trust nor Ministers.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is responsible for most of the policy changes, said: “The government has been clear that our priority is to reduce emissions in the most cost-effective way, keeping bills as low as possible for hardworking families and businesses.

“As a result of world-leading levels of investment in the UK we have seen the cost of many forms of renewable electricity decrease significantly – in those circumstances it is right that we should seek to spend less, rather than more of consumers’ money subsidising these forms of energy.”