13 March 2021
Environmental campaigners and analysts described the measures announced in the budget as a, “drop in the ocean”, compared to what is needed to address the climate crisis. Summed up with the government’s commitment to open a coal mine in Cumbria, mining coking coal to go to Europe.
All the talk of a green recovery seems to be hot air.
Despite the fact that the UK’s homes currently account for around 14 per cent of its total emissions, and that the country’s climate advisers have said that we will need to rapidly retrofit our housing stock if we are to meet our net-zero goal, the governments ‘green homes grant’ appears to have disappeared. It looks like the government isn’t really serious about tackling climate change or fuel poverty.
Apparently, we have some of the leakiest homes in Europe and I was expecting to see an army of young retrofitters trained and ready to insulate every home in Britain, creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs. Considering that developers are still building new houses not fit for our zero carbon future the scale of the challenge facing UK housing is immense.
Even more alarming is the fact that fuel duty will be frozen for the 11th year in a row. The decision means tax paid on petrol and diesel will remain at 57.95p a litre, the same price as in 2011. Instead of rising with inflation each year as promised, this rate has been frozen since 2010, meaning motorists have enjoyed a large price cut in real terms, even as public transport fares have risen faster than inflation. Analysis by the climate website ‘Carbon Brief’ previously found that the freeze in fuel duty since 2010 has caused the UK’s CO2 emissions to be as much as 5 per cent higher than they would have been.
The establishment of a new national infrastructure bank in Leeds was among the budget’s paltry low-carbon measures, along with green recovery bonds and funding for one hydrogen power project.
So far and sad to say, Mr Sunak doesn’t appear to have any green credentials. Besides the botched green homes scheme, the UK lags behind other countries on electric vehicle charging and cycling infrastructure, while nature restoration remains more a talking point than a policy.
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