HOW can Steve Webb MP claim that the Energy Bill will make a "major contribution to green jobs and tackling climate change" (Gazette, June 27)?

The UK produces less than two per cent of the world's output of carbon dioxide (CO2). China is increasing its CO2 emissions every year by more than the UK produces in total.

Meanwhile our government guarantees massive subsidies to wind farms, forcing energy prices ever higher, making our industries uncompetitive and threatening blackouts, in a futile attempt to stop the unstoppable.

The difference the UK can make is completely negligible. And if anyone thinks that setting a good example, by "de-carbonising" (something I used to do to my Vespa 125 cylinder head) our electricity sector by 2030, will encourage the rest of the world to follow, they are living in cloud-cuckoo land.

In any case, replacing all our coal- and gas-powered generation with a non-CO2 emitting alternative in only 17 years, which the mangled English seems to imply, is simply impossible.

As for "green" jobs, the letter from A Matthews (also Gazette, June 27) quotes the actual cost of each job paid for by wind generation subsidies as £100,000 per year in England and £154,000 in Scotland.

Thanks, Lib Dems, for "punching above your weight"!

John Bennett

Alveston