Letters: The National Trust and young people reply

Trust renewables

Sir: Your editorial (‘Green and unpleasant’, 3 May) accused the National Trust of jumping ‘aboard the climate change bandwagon’ and performing a ‘double backflip’ on wind energy and shale gas. Not true. We have long been worried about the impact that climate change is having on our properties. Sixty per cent of the 740 miles of coastline we look after is at risk from erosion as sea levels rise, and rising average temperatures are affecting the species we care for on our land. That’s why we are considering investing £35 million in renewable energy sources, so that by 2020 the Trust will only get 50 per cent of our energy from fossil fuels.

We recently published policy guidelines to ensure the environmental impacts of fracking are minimised. As an organisation looking after some of the country’s most beautiful countryside on behalf of the public, we also have to consider the aesthetic impacts of energy infrastructure.