Western Morning News (Saturday)
How green was my Budget? (not very)
Did Rishi Sunak have the environment in mind? Mario Du Preez gives his verdict
AFTER Boris Johnson’s promises of a recovery predicated on a ‘green revolution’, one has to ask whether the budget tabled by Rishi Sunak actually animates or frustrates the PM’s ambitious plan. As can be expected, many environmentalists have variously labelled the budget bromidefilled, an act of equivocation, devoid of concrete plans, insouciance vis-à-vis the climate crises; and equally many have argued that the fiscal allotments to address climate change were merely perfunctory. Others suggested that it suffered from the usual condition of servitude to the financial interests of corporates, bankers, and the ruling elite; an irredeemable system. Are these sentiments fair? Well, I guess it depends on whether the spending hits the target, and whether the accompanying financing arrangements are fiscally sound.
Which climate change targets should spending hit? To answer this question, I looked at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s records of the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to source, in 2019 (2019 figures are more appropriate since 2020 figures are skewed by lockdown events, and generally depressed societal and economic activity). According to the records, the transport sector contributed 34% to total CO2 emissions, energy supply 25.6%, residential 19%, business 18%, industrial processes 2.7%, the public sector 2%, and agriculture 1.6%. (Please note: other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are also important but CO2 is the major anthropogenic climate change aggravator.) Accordingly, I argue that a climate change-busting budget would base the quantum of the apportionment to a sector on its contribution to GHG emissions, especially CO2.
So, what did the biggest emissions culprit, i.e. the transport sector, receive in terms of climate change mitigating funds? (I only discuss those allocations that I could identify as directly attributable.) Well, an allocation of £4.8 million was made to support the development of a hydrogen hub in Holyhead, Wales (the hydrogen is to be used to fuel HGVs). And to support ‘cutting-edge, green technology’ innovation in the UK rail industry an amount of £30 million was allocated to the Global Centre for Rail Excellence in South Wales. Not much then. What’s more, a big disincentive to personal car use, namely fuel duties, remains frozen for the tenth consecutive year – this amounts to a large tax cut for motorists amounting to more than £10 billion per annum. And although nothing was mentioned in this budget about the government’s £27 billion five-year roadbuilding project, all indications are that this is still going ahead. Furthermore, no mention was made of further subsidisation of electric vehicle purchases, and the provision of electric public transport. The verdict? On balance, funding for GHG emission mitigation measures and incentive structures for the transport sector are very weak.
The allocations awarded to the energy sector appear more aspiring. A £20 million programme was announced to support the construction of floating offshore wind technology. A UK-wide competition, financed by a £68 million allocation, was announced to facilitate new energy storage development. And, another UK-wide competition for the development of a biomass feedstock programme received a £4 million allocation. Finally, Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone and its global underwater engineering facility received £27 million and £5 million, respectively. The verdict? A good start but far too little.
Residential sector allocations were conspicuous by their absence. most of the unspent Green Homes Grant was not rolled over (i.e. £1 billion were withdrawn from the fund leaving just £320 million for the 2021/22 fiscal year). In addition, no mention was made of VAT reductions for refurbishment or retrofitting of buildings, nor was mention made of zero VAT ratings for green repairs and green goods (such as solar panels and insulation). The verdict? A major disappointment.
I did not see any measures which directly address the business sector’s climate change inducing or mitigating actions. The verdict? A serious oversight.
The financing of the budget’s climate change mitigation measures, on the other hand, fared much better viz. the creation of £15 billion in government debt via the issuance of a sovereign green bond; the creation of a green National Savings and investment product for UK savers; the establishment of an infrastructure bank in Leeds, which will primarily invest in green projects, via the allotment of £12 billion in capital; and, a change to the Bank of England’s remit to include the duty to support the move towards net zero emissions, inter alia.
A lack of spending to achieve revolutionary environmental change does not bode well for reaching our net zero emissions target by 2050, nor does it transmit the right vibes pre-COP26.
■ Mario Du Preez is an environmental writer from Exeter
Monday: Judi Spiers has had her first coronavirus jab. Find out how she got on
HOW would you like to be in Prince Harry’s shoes? Nope… me neither. One can’t help but feel the lad is on a hiding to nothing.
His wife certainly is. You get the impression that certain elements of the media are out to get her and at the same time it appears Meghan is not the sort of person to pour oil on troubled waters.
So watching her interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday will be like seeing a match being struck in slow-motion on the side of a matchbox.
Goodness only knows what the British tabloids will be saying by Monday, but the resultant bonfire could be lighting up headlines for weeks or months to come.
Do I care? Not really. Like most people, I’ve got more to worry about – doing my own little bit to survive a pandemic and serial lockdowns – than anything that could cause me to fear for a wealthy couple in California whom I’ve never met and probably never will.
But you cannot get away from the world’s biggest real-life soap opera.
It’s almost as though the scriptwriters have spent their time in lockdown taking part in a brainstorming session on Zoom…
There’s Prince Philip closing in on his 100th birthday while recovering from a heart operation in hospital. The Queen – sad and home-alone after 74 years of marriage – already has one problem-that-won’t-goaway in the form of the strange, haughty and unpopular Prince Andrew.
Cut to an extremely unlikely scene where we see Prince Harry riding along on an open-topped bus with a chubby British actor pouring him cups of tea – admitting the surreal fact that he’s never been on such a bus before. No wonder these people need media advisers…
And what spin doctors know first and foremost is that it’s very easy for the media to chuck a load of mud and make it stick. Any newspaper editor will tell you that creating dramatic and eye-catching headlines while on the attack is far simpler than trying to promote anything relating to positivity or praise.
Once a story has legs (to use newspaper speak) it can be very difficult to reverse or subdue. Look at Trump and his media team – the people who told the US electorate that all the nation’s problems were to do with a small bunch of overly powerful folk in Washington. Millions bought into this sniping negative story even though Trump himself was an overly powerful billionaire who had not a jot in common with ordinary working people.
After entering the White House he tweeted his way through four years of bad decision-making, gaffs and errors (like his almost criminally inadequate reaction to Covid) – and still more than 70 million Americans continued to believe his tale about a wicked elite out to rob him of power.
Compared to that mayhem, stitching up a ‘dodgy duchess’ is relatively simple for British tabloid editors. A few carefully planted hints over the years that someone marrying into the best-known family in the world might be a little bit too big for her boots, that she’s just a tad disrespectful to our beloved Queen, or, worse still, that she is downright manipulative…
Such hints are to character-assassination what lighting a disposable barbecue is to a heath-fire. Whoosh! Before you know it you are looking at a scorched landscape or a burnedout reputation.
My feminist friends would argue it’s even more incendiary if the target is a woman. Fuel the bonfire with some kind of ‘Princess and the Pea’ syndrome, or that the person is cruel and bullying to staff, and you are well on your way to painting a pantomime villain.
You get the picture. I know you do. Because nine out of ten Brits already seem to have made up their minds… Meghan was a mistake. She’s not good for poor boyish Harry who, because of his mother, has every reason to fear the wolf pack otherwise known as the British Press.
There’s even a bit of previous… It was 85 years ago that the brother of Harry’s great-grandfather turned his back on royal life to run off with an American divorcee. And Mrs Simpson wasn’t given a kindly ride by Fleet Street, either.
What I find sad and worrying is the way in which negativity so easily spreads like wildfire – while attempting to portray anything positive is like attempting to set light to a pile of wet logs. It’s as though we are designed by default to veer towards nastiness and suspicion.
“You wait and see, the tabloids will go after Meghan and Harry and those daft young things won’t stand a chance,” an old media hack told me on the phone this week. “Accusations of her bullying staff are just the start of it.”
People say The Crown is one of the best television productions ever made. I’d agree. Vast sums were spent creating it. But they might save a bob or two on scriptwriters if they ever decide to bring the series up to date. That edge of drama required to make a screenplay jump off the page is being penned as we speak.
Brits have made up their mind ... Meghan was a mistake. She’s not good for poor boyish Harry
OFTEN when you release animals back in the wild, they cling hesitantly to the side of their cage, not quite sure what they might come across when that security is no more.
Well, I think I know how that must feel. Having gone into zoo mode when we’ve been locked down in our own enclosure, with only the zoom lenses to poke between the bars to remind us that life goes on outside, it’s fast coming to the point where we’re going to be set free.
The longer evenings are making me realise that freedom may be around the corner. But like that creature in a cage, I’m not sure what I’m going to make of it all. A report recently released by the British Psychological Society says, “We have reached a state of peak demotivation”. and I think most of us would agree.
Suddenly the desire to meet with friends isn’t quite so exciting. What will we talk about? At the moment, we’re limited to TV programmes, or what the dog did. What will we have in common? What did we have in common?
So comfortable have I got in my cage that I really wonder why I need to leave it. I can almost understand prisoners who re-offend so that they can go back inside to the security of a cell.
During the first lockdown, I reflected that the woman in my mirror could have shared Einstein’s hairdresser. During the latest lockdown, I don’t care too much.
I’ve got a wardrobe of high-heeled shoes. When freedom comes, I’ll have to make an effort – can’t slob around in my Converse boots. I looked in my shoe cupboard the other day and slid my feet into some slinky little suede numbers. I walked > like Ronnie Barker in drag and only made it down the stairs by clinging to the banister.
I have handbags, a couple of drawers of them. When will they get used? I’m existing perfectly well carrying my phone and my cards and shoving my keys in my jeans pockets.
I realise that I’ve lost my longing to go to the theatre. We’re eating like kings, so I’m not sure why we need to go out to dinner. I mean, what will I do in a restaurant? Drinking nice wines holds no great novelty – been doing that for the last year. Even travelling to a place seems a faff.
I’m normally in London quite a lot. Now the very thought of catching the early train and pushing through the crowded Tube holds no joy. My lockdown routine has become so samey – even the prospect of staying up late fills me with apprehension. The only time I see midnight now is if
I wake in front of the TV to see the credits roll.
I’m also going to need to re-learn going into a busy pub (never thought I’d say that). I mean, we’ll all have the same topic of conversation, which is err, not a lot. Having friends round to supper will be back on the calendar. Entertaining skills will all need resurrecting, pretty clothes shown the light of day.
What about booking a nice holiday? Why? I certainly don’t want to sit on a beach somewhere. Life’s been too sedentary in the last year. I don’t have a great desire to go sailing or climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, either.
No, what I really want to do is a mojo-finding course. Because I seem to have lost mine, completely. Never mind Covid, I need a mojo vaccination – and fast. One that will fill me with adrenalin, make me look for challenges and fill me with an extra dose of excitement, because the way I’m feeling at the moment, I’m simply going to say “yeah, whatever” when my cage door opens.
I need lessons in creating excitement, momentum, and in learning to use money – d’ya remember that brown and silver stuff that clanks in old coat pockets? I still come across it occasionally, nestling with old train tickets. I find myself, like an archaeologist, looking at a wondrous find and marvelling at times past.
I need lessons in sociability, lessons in small talk. I especially need commissions to take me out of my comfort zone (you reading this, editor dear?). A visit to Sudan, if I could get there, or go back to working with the refugees in Greece might shake me from my malaise, make me realise what a fortunate being I am to have come through this all. I need to look at the self-centred persona I fear I may have taken on recently, need to shake my agoraphobic state.
Apart from my regular scribing, I’ve had few other commitments requiring deadlines and each day I’ve poddled along with Hubs, both of us working and doing what suits. We already have events on the horizon post-lockdown and I feel somewhat daunted – I mean, are they necessary?
I realise I’m going to have to learn to come into the human world again, learn to come out of my cage and it’s going to take time for me to expand my shrunken existence.
Deep down I know I’m not cut out to be a hermit. But learning to join the human race again? Well only time will tell.
So comfortable have I got in my cage that I really wonder why I need to leave it. I can almost understand prisoners who re-offend so that they can go back to the security of a cell