The Chancellor shows his true colours

Don't worry, my hopes weren't high for yesterday's Autumn Statement by George Osborne on (a) the state of the economy and (b) what he'd do about it.

But even so, wow: what a stinker it was. I'm still reeling.

On the environment, George Osborne has already hammered his colours joyfully to the mast. The colour of those colours? Not green. This is the chap who told delegates at the Conservative conference that he didn't think the UK should go faster than anyone else in cutting emissions.

Under his watch, the Treasury has: 

• Imposed and ruthlessly enforced an arbitrary budget around the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) - putting 30,000 jobs in the solar sector at risk 
• Ended all taxpayer funding for insulating the homes of vulnerable or low-income people, for the first time since the 1970s. 
• Yes, introduced a Green Investment Bank, but stymied it by stopping it being able to borrow and lend 
• Cut fuel duty, hoisted up train fares, and driven forward an blinkered obsession with economic growth that permeates every new policy, from planning to localism.

With the economy on the verge of tanking again and carbon cuts needed more desperately than ever, this could have been a game-changing speech from Osborne. But it wasn't. Even with my expectations firmly checked, I have to say I was shocked by the sheer awfulness of what he came out with - from an environmental and an economic point of view.

• He doled out £250m to energy intensive industries to allow them to continue to pollute. The special pleading from some of the UK's biggest businesses about cutting carbon worked and they'll get cash to help them avoid carbon tax. But there's very little evidence for energy intensive industries being particularly affected by climate costs - in fact they've done very nicely indeed out of free emissions permits and tax cuts. If the Chancellor was going to provide money, it should have been to help business invest to cut emissions and save cash. This is throwing good money after bad
• For the second time running, he cut the planned 3p rise in fuel duty for January. Fuel duty was already lower in real terms than 2001 and scrapping the rise means fuel duty isn't even keeping pace with inflation. The Economist wrote last week that they doubt cutting fuel duty brings in enough growth to justify the massive loss to the Treasury coffers
• Rail fares, on the other hand, will still rise - albeit by not quite as much
• He rattled through a swathe of new infrastructure he intends to fast-track, most of which he had already announced. Annoyingly, most of these were roads, although there were a few new railways in there
• He banged on about the wonderful new growth-obsessed planning system that the Government is creating - Friends of the Earth does not think it is wonderful - and with scorn, said that regulating to protect habitats too much gets in the way of business
• And he's making the poorest in society pay for it. For example, planned increases in child tax credits are being axed, saving £5 billion - exactly the same amount as it will cost to cut the 3p from fuel duty I mentioned up there.

Oh, and he's postponing a rise in Air Passenger Duty for those lucky folk who fly around in private jets. 

I've put together a briefing which sets out what Osborne should have done instead, had he genuinely cared about a green economy, rather than appearing to be contemptuous of it.

He should have stopped the 30,000 in the solar industry facing a Christmas with the whole future of their industry in the balance, because of Treasury penny-pinching. He should have let the Green Investment Bank - a body he only agreed to under some considerable duress in the first place - out of his clutches and free to borrow and lend to finance the green economy. And instead of letting big business off its carbon taxes, he should have found money to help the poorest and most vulnerable in society afford their fuel bills and live in decent, well-insulated homes.

Of all that was there none.

In opposition, Osborne declared that the Treasury under his watch would "no longer be the cuckoo in the nest" when it comes to green policies. He pledged lots of other things too, like saying that public spending would go up and VAT wouldn't. Just like those bluff promises, things haven't panned out like that since George took up the reigns. It's really worrying stuff.

As my boss Andy blogged yesterday, David Cameron needs to step up his game, sharpish. Because if the noises coming from Number 11 are anything to go by, any idea of this being considered as the 'Greenest Government Ever' will become wispier by the week.