Billionaire businessman and Virgin founder Richard Branson has backed campaigners fighting the Government over cuts to renewable subsidies.
Responding to an e-mail message from his friend, the solar campaigner Jeremy Leggett, Mr Branson insisted that the UK must continue to invest in renewables.

He said in his blog: 'I believe we must keep investing in alternative fuels to help reduce our Global carbon problem. Those fearing economic growth will be stifled by investment in renewables are wrong. We should look at these new industries and forms of power as one of the greatest business opportunities of the 21st Century.'

He added: 'Let's hope the UK and other countries use 2012 to get behind a Green Industrial revolution.'

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has appealed against a High Court ruling that branded its plans to rush through cuts to solar feed-in tariffs as unlawful.

It said: 'The overriding aim of the proposed reduction in tariffs for solar PV (as set out in the recent consultation) is to ensure that over the long term as many people as possible are encouraged to install small-scale low-carbon generation (including other technologies as well as solar PV) and benefit from the funding available for the FIT scheme.'