To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the breakdown is of Government spending on renewable energy estimated in the Pre-Budget Report to be £5.8 billion over the period of the Comprehensive Spending Review. (289873)

The 2008 pre-Budget report stated that Government policies are driving £50 billion of investment in the low-carbon sector over three years to 2011.

This brings together Government spending, fiscal support and private investment driven by Government regulation in energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and public transport.

While the report did not provide a specific estimate of the level of renewables investment driven by Government policies, we estimated it to be approximately £5.8 billion.

This estimate was based on the additional investment driven by changes to the Renewable Obligation (RO). Approximately a quarter of this additional investment resulted directly from the increase in the level of RO support with the remainder coming from increased private sector investment resulting from the changes.

This represented a highly conservative estimate of the impact of the Government's renewable policies on investment over the CSR period. For example, it did not include:

the impact on investment resulting from the existing RO support already in place before 2008; and

support for renewables investment through the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and 'R and D tax credits' for low carbon R and D.