The Great Green Con: Labour's climate measures mainly hot air

Britain’s economic stimulus measures, promoted by Gordon Brown as part of a “global green new deal”, will accelerate global warming instead of curbing it, an investigation by The Independent on Sunday has established.

The investigation also shows that most of the Prime Minister’s vaunted green initiatives have not materialised and, in some cases, are likely to set back his professed strategy for “the creation of a low-carbon economy”. It has found that, over the past four years, ministers have launched a staggering 91 consultations relating to the issue, while actually doing little.

The revelations come as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, prepares to unveil what ministers insist will be a groundbreaking green Budget. Yesterday, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, told the IoS that it would represent “a massive greening of the Government”.

Last year’s Budget, however, was similarly trailed in advance as “the greenest ever”, but actually led to a slight fall in the revenue coming from green taxes. And though Gordon Brown promised in 1997 to put “the environment at the core of the Government’s objectives for the tax system”, income from such taxes fell by 22 per cent during his 10 years as Chancellor.

Independent