Responding to yesterday’s announcement that energy giants E.ON and RWE have shelved plans for new nuclear plants in the UK, environmental groups have suggested there is no better time for the UK to get behind renewable strategies.

Friends of the Earth’s Energy Campaigner Paul Steedman said: “With energy firms abandoning plans for nuclear across Europe, the Government should end its fixation with a technology that has always delivered late and over budget.”

The German companies said the move was based on “strategic grounds” but green groups have jumped on the back of the decision which follows a similar move by SSE earlier in the year to throw the towel in on new expensive plants.

Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s Policy Director said: “The government’s energy strategy is crumbling. Not even the billions of pounds of tax payers’ money they have offered as incentives to the German and French nuclear industry are enough to make a new generation of power stations economically viable.”

Instead, environmental campaign groups are urging the Government to give more support to renewable technologies.

Dr Parr added: “The future isn’t nuclear – the future is green. The government must now recognise it’s high-time to invest in making homes energy efficient and delivering a coherent renewable energy strategy that will provide UK households and businesses with clean, safe and cheaper power that will also create much needed jobs for the UK economy.”