GREEN campaigners have called Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget a ‘drop in the ocean’ of what’s needed to tackle climate change.
West Midlands Friends of the Earth said the small rise in incentives to fund apprenticeships is not enough to create the 250,000 new green apprenticeships needed to tackle life-wrecking youth unemployment and boost the drive to a zero carbon future.
Campaigner Chris Crean said: “The government should be spending £40billion per year in areas such as home insulation, eco-heating, tree planting and peatland restoration. Instead these areas remain starved of cash.
“Growing the green economy will be the engine of our well-being and future economy – but the Chancellor yet again failed to deliver.”
Chris added his concerns over the government freezing fuel duty again.
“No wonder passenger cars’ contribution to the climate crisis has barely fallen in the past decade.
“The sale of gas-guzzling SUVs are a particular concern, as they have helped drive a rise in average emissions from new cars in the last five years.
“Mr Sunak should be doing more to discourage the purchase of these polluting vehicles – such as slapping a significant increase in road tax on them.”
Friends of the Earth is an international community dedicated to the protection of the natural world and the wellbeing of everyone in it.
For more information visit the Friends of the Earth website.
