Ok, so the Chancellor’s delivered his first Budget today, but the big question is, was it a Green Budget or not?
 

Well we’ve outlined the main Climate related points of the Budget for you below:

• On the back of record oil prices, the planned 2p per litre increase in fuel duty has been postponed until October. However, for environmental reasons, duty on fuel will rise by 0.5p in real terms by 2010.
• Road pricing could fight congestion, so new funding committed to its development.
• From 2009 there will be new bands of road tax for the most polluting vehicles. From 2010, lowest emission cars will pay no tax in first year.
• Target to reduce carbon emissions by 60% may be extended to 80% by 2050.
• Legislation to come into force in 2009 to impose a charge on single-use carrier bags if progress is not made on a voluntary basis.
• £26 million next year to help homes cut their carbon footprint and energy consumption.
• New non-domestic buildings zero carbon by 2019.
• First carbon budget pledged alongside next year’s Budget.

So all-in-all I don’t see that as too bad for the Climate.  Obviously there’s always more that could be done but it’s good to see that things are moving in the right direction!

The one really exciting point of this for me is next year’s “Carbon Budget”.  I’ll try and find out some more about what exactly this will consist of but it sounds as though it could mean big things for this Country’s commitment to the Environment and the fight against Climate Change.