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Chancellor remains addicted to high-oil economy
23 March 2011
Today's Budget will do little to help people cope with long-term rising fossil fuel prices, capitalise on the UK's huge green job potential or tackle climate change, Friends of the Earth warned this afternoon.
Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins said:
"In the face of a global oil crisis this Budget will increase the UK's oil addiction - and people across the UK will be forced to pay the price.
"The Government talks about ending our fossil-fuel dependency, but like a 40- year-old smoker pledging to give up in ten years' time, the Chancellor is taking a reckless gamble."
On the Green Investment Bank, Andy Atkins said:
"The Green Investment Bank should have been a vehicle to drive the UK's economic recovery, but by delaying the bank's borrowing powers the Treasury has sneaked round the back of the motor and siphoned off the fuel - just as the rest of Government is firing up the ignition.
"In the global race to develop green industry, the Treasury seems determined to make the UK lose."
ENDS
Notes to editors
- A full Friends of the Earth briefing on the Budget is available.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Mar 2011
