Commenting on today’s UK Budget, Transform director Colin Howden said:
“Today’s Budget will go down as another disaster for the climate. The focus on one crisis is understandable, but not to take account of the greater crisis is unforgivable. Even the Chancellor’s hero Margaret Thatcher had a greater grasp of the need to tackle climate change.
“It’s not just the complete failure to frame the response to the pandemic in terms of a ‘Green Recovery’, it’s the actual economic incentives that have been introduced by the Chancellor. In the same week that the UK Government has brought in rail fare increases, it has for the eleventh year running cut the cost of motoring by freezing fuel duty.
“It is going to be difficult for the UK Government to stand up its claims of leadership on climate at COP26 in Glasgow later this year when its policies on transport, the largest source of emissions, will directly damage the prospects for achieving our climate targets.”
