Budget 2021 - Greenpeace response

In response to Chancellor Rishi Sunak's budget speech in the Commons today, Rebecca Newsom, Head of Politics for Greenpeace UK, said: "For all the talk of a green recovery, this Budget suggests the Chancellor has failed to clock the urgency of the climate emergency. A National Infrastructure Bank and Green Bonds could be steps forward, but without a guarantee they will provide sustained investment to decarbonise buildings, transport and industry, they are unlikely to do much to advance climate action. Meanwhile the government’s shambolic handling of the Green Homes Grant and ambitions for the City on ‘high quality’ offsetting are both steps in the opposite direction, leaving the UK with weakened authority on the world stage ahead of November’s climate conference. Successive budgets that approach the climate and nature emergency in a half-hearted manner have left us running out of time and credibility."