Following up on our blog post from a couple of weeks ago exploring how green the coalition government is we have a new one as to whether the pledge by David Cameron to be the "greenest ever."
Jonathon Porritt, a former government advisor, audited 75 policies in a study funded by Friends of the Earth and found only 6 could be considered as being highly successful. Such successes have included scrapping airport expansions in the south-east, including ditching Heathrow's new runway, incorporating smart meters into 30 million homes and the world's first Renewable Heat Incentive.
Porritt mentioned a number of pro-environment policies that had been scrapped like a planned rise in aviation tax and the failure so far of the green investment bank to get of the ground. During the last general election campaign George Osborne pledged "if I become chancellor, the Treasury will become a green ally, not a foe." However, in practice we have seen the Treasury keep a tight grip on its purse strings when it comes to funding green policies. What we find is a combination of under funded schemes, a shackled Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) or encouraging government to reject new carbon reducing measures.
As Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary for Labour, remarked, "the government has tried to sell of our forests, cut investment in flood defences by 27%, delayed on the waste review and Water White Paper and abolished the Sustainable Development Commission. That's not a green vision but an abject failiure of the government to get to grips with the environment."
Jonathon Porritt, a former government advisor, audited 75 policies in a study funded by Friends of the Earth and found only 6 could be considered as being highly successful. Such successes have included scrapping airport expansions in the south-east, including ditching Heathrow's new runway, incorporating smart meters into 30 million homes and the world's first Renewable Heat Incentive.
Porritt mentioned a number of pro-environment policies that had been scrapped like a planned rise in aviation tax and the failure so far of the green investment bank to get of the ground. During the last general election campaign George Osborne pledged "if I become chancellor, the Treasury will become a green ally, not a foe." However, in practice we have seen the Treasury keep a tight grip on its purse strings when it comes to funding green policies. What we find is a combination of under funded schemes, a shackled Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) or encouraging government to reject new carbon reducing measures.
As Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary for Labour, remarked, "the government has tried to sell of our forests, cut investment in flood defences by 27%, delayed on the waste review and Water White Paper and abolished the Sustainable Development Commission. That's not a green vision but an abject failiure of the government to get to grips with the environment."
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