As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the second day of Cop26, last week’s Budget announcements are coming under increased scrutiny.
The latest United Nations Emissions Gap report says climate commitments fall far short of the halving of greenhouse emissions required to limit temperature rise to less than 1.5C.
The UN is pressing governments to implement their net zero pledges with ‘urgency and ambition’. But environmental groups have accused the Conservative Government of Budget greenwashing and missing a huge opportunity to introduce bold measures on the world stage.
Certainly, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget speech failed to use the word ‘climate’ once and made few references to the Government’s strategy to reach net zero by 2050.
Friends Of The Earth’s head of policy, Mike Childs, says the Budget announcement was ‘shockingly bad’ and did little to demonstrate that the Government recognises the enormity of the climate crisis.
‘Fast-tracking the shift to a zero-carbon economy — with much greater investment in our homes, public transport and nature — should have been at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s plans. Instead climate change hardly featured.
‘Despite the Chancellor’s window-dressing, his plans will simply prolong the UK’s dependency on fossil fuels and make it far harder to seize the substantial job and export opportunities that climate leadership would bring,’ adds Childs.
The Treasury argues that the Budget and Spending Review, combined with the net-zero strategy, keeps the UK on track for its climate targets, with the help of £30billion investment.
But many disagree, including the Scottish Green Party. ‘The investment in green tech does not go far enough, and the plans to spend £21billion on roads while cutting air passenger duty for domestic flights, as well as freezing fuel duty, take a wrecking ball to the UK’s climate obligations,’ says Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer.
Here, we look at what green measures were in the Budget and what their likely impact might be…
Flying
From 2023 domestic flights will have lower rates of passenger duty, making it much cheaper to fly between UK cities. The current £13 each-way tax will be halved to £6.50.
At the same time, tax on long-haul flights of 5,500 miles or more will increase to £91 in economy class. Mike Childs argues that cutting air passenger duty on domestic flights is an ‘astonishing move that completely flies in the face of the climate emergency’ and says that the Government should be making it cheaper for people to travel by train instead.
‘Duty for all flights should have been increased or, even better, replaced with a frequent flyers levy, aimed at curbing multiple flights taken by a minority of people each year,’ he adds.
Driving
The fuel duty rise has been frozen for the 12th consecutive year but this does nothing to tackle emissions. The tax has remained at a rate of 57.95 pence per litre, plus VAT, since 2011.
There is also frustration that Whitehall is ploughing £21billion into new roads and just £6.9billion into public transport. But the Government has allocated £830million to develop electric car manufacturing in the Midlands and the North-East plus £620million for public car charging and grants, ahead of the 2030 target to ban new petrol and diesel car sales.
‘It is difficult to say whether this level of funding will deliver the demand to achieve the 2030 target. But to get to net zero we must reduce individual car use, less people need to drive. Prioritising money for roads is a negative step,’ says Sam Alves, head of green renewal at the Green Alliance.
Public transport
The Spending Review confirmed £6.1billion will be spent on the transport decarbonisation strategy including around £5billion for buses, walking and cycling. There was no news on the high-speed rail network HS2 but Sunak did announce an additional £1.5billion for regional transport projects.
‘This would have been a good time to set out the Government’s plans to reach a net-zero railway, including a rolling programme of electrification and fleet orders of hydrogen and battery trains,’ says Railway Industry Association CEO, Darren Caplan.
Pocket parks
A £9million investment was pledged to help councils create 100 tennis court-size parks across the UK. But Joan Edwards, The Wildlife Trusts’ director of public affairs, says the Budget ‘completely failed’ to put the UK on the path to restoring nature.
‘The Dasgupta Review, which was commissioned by the Treasury, made it clear that nature has been exploited beyond breaking point for too long and its depletion is now threatening the prosperity of future generations. The responsible thing to do to secure a stronger economy is to urgently invest in nature’s recovery,’ she adds.
Energy efficiency
There was disappointment that the Budget contained no funding for home energy improvements, despite the recent announcement of a heat pump subsidy. Post-Budget analysis by Carbon Brief says Sunak’s plans to part-subsidise 30,000 heat pumps a year for three years will probably not get us to the government target of 600,000 a year by 2028.
‘Money for home energy improvement is about a third of what we need. It is crucial we have money to improve insulation and building fabric,’ says Sam Alves.
A government spokesman says: ‘The Budget and Spending Review confirmed that since March 2021 the Government will have committed a total of £30billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. This includes £26billion of capital investment to support our Net Zero Strategy.
‘The funding will ensure we’re on track to meet our Carbon Budgets and reach net zero by 2050. It lays the foundations for a clean, resilient and secure energy supply while accelerating decarbonisation in transport and buildings. It will also help level up our country by creating green jobs and develop new industries with innovative new technologies.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
MORE : Millions set to be ‘worse off’ despite Rishi Sunak’s lavish Budget spending
MORE : What’s changing for mortgages following the Budget?
MORE : Will you lose money? Our calculator reveals the true cost of Rishi Sunak’s Budget
Autumn Budget 2021: All the key points from Rishi Sunak's plan
Rishi Sunak has announced the largest increase in public spending in a century in a budget that has promised ‘the start of a new post-Covid economy’.
Many of the headline policies include a rise in the national living wage and a pledge to spend billions on the NHS.
Here are the main changes you need to know about:
- Will you be worse off or better off? Our Budget calculator reveals the true cost
- Universal Credit raised for 1,700,000 people with 8p boost to pay packet
- Developers will pay £5,000,000,000 tax to fix homes with dangerous cladding
- Fuel duty will not increase as prices at the pumps hit record high
- Millions of key workers set to be paid more as Rishi Sunak confirms end to pay freeze
- National living wage rises to £9.50 an hour
- Pints of beer cut by 3p and sparkling wine is about to become cheaper
- Prepare for a pricey Christmas as inflation ‘likely to rise’
How to get your Metro newspaper fix
Metro newspaper is still available for you to pick up every weekday morning or you can download our app for all your favourite news, features, puzzles... and the exclusive evening edition!
Download the Metro newspaper app for free on App Store and Google Play
source https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/02/how-eco-friendly-was-last-weeks-budget-and-what-will-the-impact-be-15518828/
Posts
0 Comments