| The European Union has been central to improving the quality of the UK's environment. The European Union has helped SMEs by initiating the new Green Action Plan which helped SMEs to reduce the size of their carbon footprint. The total estimated saving to European industry amounted to €630billion. The European Union has also played a key role in ensuring that green business start-ups are able to bring innovative products to market through targeted grants supporting them in the difficult period between product development and bringing the product to market. The recent Eco-innovation grants generated £20 for every £1 invested supporting over 240 green start-ups to take new products to market. More generally European legislation on carbon emissions and recycling has meant that the UK government has an incentive to provide grants to green industries to bring down the UK's overall level of carbon emissions. If the government fails to do so it expects to receive hefty fines from the European Union. This lead to innovative schemes such as the Feed-In Tariff scheme which provided subsidies for micro and macro solar and wind energy generation. If we leave Europe all of this is at risk. Sign our petition to protect green jobs in Britain | 