Gordon Brown lets the planet down

Friends of the Earth has criticised the lack of serious action taken by Gordon Brown in his Pre-Budget statement to cut greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

Tony Blair has said there is an urgent need for action on climate change.

However, the Chancellor once again failed to implement the measures necessary to tackle rising road and air transport emissions.

Friends of the Earth had called for:

An increase in Air Passenger Duty to start tackling emissions from air travel.
A reform of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) to give a real incentive to buy fuel-efficient cars.
An increase in fuel duty in line with inflation with the revenue explicitly used to improve alternatives to the car.

Graph showing fall in real terms cost of motoring and rise in public transport costs

Carbon dioxide emissions have risen since Labour came to power.

The Big Ask campaign, launched by Friends of the Earth, challenges the Government to introduce the Climate Change Bill. The law would force the Government to reduce UK carbon dioxide emissions by 3% every year. The Bill is supported by over 300 MPs.

Resource

Tackling Climate Change through the Budget
(PDF† 105K) October 2005
This briefing shows how the Chancellor can use taxation to address the problem of growing carbon emissions from transport.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

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Main image © Friends of the Earth

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