In his first major act as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak approached the dispatch box on 11th March with the government’s economic measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic as his main priority. Along with a raft of far-reaching economic measures to address the novel-coronavirus, the Chancellor also turned on the taps, with over £30billion of tax relief and spending promises flowing from the famous red briefcase. Mr. Sunak’s predecessor, Sajid Javid had promised a “Green Budget” for 2020, prior to his unexpected departure and even more unexpected emergence of a pandemic.
Notwithstanding these unforeseen circumstances, the Chancellor included a number of financial measures to deliver sustainability over the next 5-years. The key green pledges in the 2020 budget are:
- £5.2 billion for flood defence scheme
- £800 million for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
- £640 million for Nature for Climate Fund for tree planting and peatland restoration
- £500 million for Electric Vehicle fast-charging infrastructure
- £270 million for Heat Networks Investment Project
- Plastic packaging tax to come into force from April 2022
- Scrapping subsidies for non-agricultural “red-diesel”
The budget contains a number of spending promises for much needed sustainability projects and should be applauded as such. However, it is questionable if the measures promised by Mr. Sunak’s first budget go far enough to move the UK towards a carbon net-zero future.
Whilst the budget may not be considered fully “Green”, it is certainly a step in the right direction from a government who have mad a series of promises about the environment. Much needed investment in our nation’s flood defences, novel technologies such as CCS and in restoration of the natural habitat partially deliver on these promises.
Green policies will need to be included in every subsequent budget that the Chancellor brings to the House if the UK is to meet its legal obligations to decarbonise fully by 2050. If the government assumes that this is job done and that future budgets can ignore the “Green” issue, then a net-zero future will not be achieved.
