22nd March 2007

Gordon Brown's Budget proposals on the environment are seriously complacent. After months of rhetoric on the need to curb our carbon emissions, there is a shocking absence of substance in this budget.

Brown may have commissioned the Stern report but there is little evidence that he has actually read it. His failure to heed the warning that we must tackle climate change now is staggering.

The Chancellor should have adopted a new golden rule - that of carbon cutting.  He promises to save just 16 million tonnes of carbon through a package. One single measure - restoration of the fuel duty escalator  - would save more.

The Green Party's own Carbon Costed budget, which includes bringing  back the fuel duty escalator, doubling the climate change levy, giving a £500 million boost for renewable energy grants, would save 55 million tonnes in 2007/8 alone.

If this is an indication of Brown as PM, then it seems clear that the gulf between rhetoric and action on climate change will continue to  grow.

Cllr Martin Whiteside, Stroud Parliamentary candidate for Green party