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BUDGET REACTION: Climate commitment 'spin deep'

12 March 2008
Topics: Politics, Climate

Climate commitment ‘spin deep’
… transport package all ‘icing, no cake’;
… Chancellor ‘failed’ leadership test.
 
Commenting on the environmental aspects of Alistair Darling's Westminster budget announcement today, FoES Chief Executive Duncan McLaren said:
 
“This budget reveals that the UK Government’s commitment to tackling climate change remains ‘spin-deep’. Traffic accounts for almost a quarter of climate changing emissions, and despite cleaner vehicles, total emissions are rising as the real cost of motoring falls. Even the Treasury admits that after the scheduled rises in fuel duty, real costs of motoring would be 10% lower than in 1999.
 
“While we welcome show-room taxes, without fuel duty rises the budget package of transport measures is all icing, and no cake. We need both carrots and sticks. The public would support higher fuel duty if the Government invest the returns in better alternatives to car use, and in protecting those who are genuinely vulnerable to rising motoring costs – poorer households in rural areas.
 
“This was a key test of whether the Chancellor could deliver strong leadership. He failed. No one – not even the haulage industry - benefits from this sort of cowardly flip-flopping every time the road lobby says ‘boo!’
 
“In other areas the budget is a mixed bag, with small steps in the right direction on funding for green homes, a ‘carbon budget’ promised in future years, a higher level of auctioning of carbon emissions permits, and the threat of a plastic bag levy. But financially, these remain small fry. Once again the key decisions on transport measures have been deferred. The Chancellor has failed to show firm leadership where it is desperately needed."

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an environmental charity based in Scotland
5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR. Tel: 0131 243 2700. Registered charity number SC003442