At the Campaign against Climate Change, we are currently supporting not one but two petitions to stop the government blocking wind energy projects that have already had local approval. Yes, that's right: blocking wind energy projects that have already had local approval.

That these petitions are necessary is mind-boggling. We all know that we are no longer in the days of 'greenest government ever' rhetoric. But you might have thought that the IPCC's recent dire warnings would have caused a moment's reflection, a touch of unease as to whether this is an appropriate response to the crisis facing humanity... apparently not.

The first petition, set up by Dan Grierson and hosted by 38 Degrees, refers to the Conservative Party's intended manifesto pledge to ban new onshore windfarms from 2020. The argument that they are doing this because wind farms are "unpopular" is a fascinating one, given the party's gung-ho support for fracking, a far less popular technology. DECC's most recent figures show a record 70% support for onshore wind, compared to 12% opposition.

More worryingly, they are planning to block one of the cheapest forms of clean energy with no alternative strategy for meeting UK emissions targets (see for example, analysis by James Murray and Alan Whitehead MP).

The second petition (from Trillion Fund, a crowd-funding platform for renewable energy) is about what's happening right now. Even if you picked up the story about the Tory manifesto, you might have missed this one: Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has taken personal control of wind farm applications for another year. In a six-month trial period he accepted just one proposed wind farm that he reviewed and rejected seven, overriding local decision-making.

He threw out, for example, Ecotricity's application to build four wind turbines in Somerset on the grounds of visual impact, despite the fact that the planning inspector who had actually visited the site did not believe this would be a problem. Ecotricity will be mounting a legal challenge.

Sign Dan's 38 Degrees petition here

Sign Trillion Fund's Change.org petition here

Wind turbine photo from Flickr user Rob Allen