An investment of up to £60 million in wave and tidal energy was announced by the UK government today (15th July) as part of its Low Carbon Transition Plan. The money will come from a pot of carbon investment funding announced in the recent budget and will, says the government, "cement the UK's position as a global leader in wave and tidal energy."

The budget for the wave and tidal energy sector will see up to £9.5 million investment in the Wave Hub sub-sea socket off Cornwall and up to a further £10 million funding to make the South West the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area, a world centre for wave and tidal energy. Another tranche sets aside up to £10 million for testing facilities at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland and up to £8m for the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.

Finally, an additional £22 million has been earmarked as a new Marine Renewables Proving Fund for testing and demonstration of wave and tidal technologies.

The wave and tidal investment forms just a small part of the Low Carbon Transition Plan which plots out how the UK will meet the cut in emissions set out in the budget of 34% on 1990 levels by 2020. The Transition Plan is, claims the government, the most systematic response to climate change of any major developed economy, and sets the standard for others in the run up to crucial global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

Commenting on the plan Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "The UK was the first country in the world to legislate for carbon budgets. It was a dramatic change in approach. This is a transition plan for Britain, a route-map to 2020, with carbon savings expected across every sector and a carbon budget assigned to every government department alongside its financial budget.

"Renewables, nuclear and clean fossil fuels are the trinity of low carbon and the future of energy in Britain. Under our plans we will get 40% of our electricity from low carbon energy by 2020 and more in the years afterwards.

"Our plan will strengthen our energy security, it seeks to be fair to the most vulnerable, it seizes industrial opportunity and it rises to the moral challenge of climate change.

"In five months, the world must come together at Copenhagen and follow through on the commitment of world leaders last week to stop dangerous climate change. Today we have shown how Britain will play its part."