George’s little red briefcase is lacking big green ideas
George Osborne has just set out the 2016 Budget, confirming a reform of business carbon taxes and agreeing the next round of funding that will be allocated to new renewable energy projects.
Published 16th March 2016
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Delivering his eighth Budget announcement to a jubilant House of Commons, the Chancellor provided some positive news on carbon reporting regulations and the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, and also confirmed new funding for energy storage demand-side response technologies, and Britain’s flood defences.
But the Chancellor failed to answer a number of other key green policy questions. What about air quality? The future of the Levy Control Framework? Mandatory carbon reporting? Support for SMEs on energy efficiency? The recent CCS cancellation? And the historic Paris climate deal – surely that got a mention?
Unfortunately not. Ultimately, this is another Budget that has failed to rise to the challenge set by that ambitious Paris agreement, and Osborne just didn’t quite deliver the Easter egg of green pledges we were all hoping for.
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