Monbiot: Budget 2009: Alistair Darling has just thrown away £300m

The car scrappage scheme will raise emissions, while the target for cutting carbon emissions of 34% by 2020 is still not enough

You might have imagined, in these lean times, that the government would spend what remains of our money carefully. But it has just thrown away

The car scrappage scheme is not about jobs or the environment: it is not green and it’s not a new deal. It’s simply another installment in the 50-year history of government subsidies for the motor industry. Darling was quite frank about it: the purpose of the scrappage scheme, he said, is “support for the automotive industry”. But in this case it’s mostly the automotive industry in other countries that we’ll be supporting, as 85% of our new cars come from abroad. This is a stupid and profligate way to spend our diminished funds.

But there are other measures in the budget which make environmental sense. Most importantly, Darling announced that he will do as the Committee 2. on Climate Change recommended, and set a target for cutting carbon emissions of 34% by 2020. It’s still not enough, but a great improvement on the government’s previous pledge – less a target than a whole shooting range – of 26-32%. The