Politicians have spent years talking about the need to create ‘green jobs’. In many ways they have succeeded: there are now nearly 700,000 people employed in green jobs in the UK.

But while the likes of Ed Miliband may think this is a victory, the reality is that many of these jobs are a product of government subsidy, paid for by the taxpayer. These subsidies distort the energy market and have resulted in a massive misallocation of human talent, not to mention money. We now have, without doubt, a green industrial complex in Britain.

Last year environmental levies, including costs for renewable obligations and contracts for difference, or CfDs, (in which the government agrees to pay renewable energy companies the difference between a pre-agreed price and the actual market rate if it is

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