Obviously George Osborne hasn’t received the memo – Green is Working.
Today, Stop Climate Chaos brought together an alliance of NGOs and their supporters outside the Treasury in London to show that Green policies are working and the Government must safeguard and build on them.
The Treasury’s much-reported attempts to undermine legislation which promotes climate mitigation and renewable energy are out of touch with the economy itself. Analysis from the Green Alliance shows that the green sector of the economy is growing faster than any other sector and already employs 1 million people.
Government policy can be crucial to the future of the green economy and therefore to the opportunities for green jobs for young people – something that lies at the heart of our Youth for Green Jobs campaign.
So, as well as Izzy and Matt joining the other NGOs, our Fran went to 10 Downing Street and handed in a letter from NGOs asking Government to make the right choices for the environment. Two key decisions by Government this Autumn could make all the difference.
1. The Energy Bill: will Government choose to set the UK on a trajectory to a clean energy future, or will it undermine our climate targets by the back door by incentivising new fossil fuel investment.
2. Government is obliged to decide by the end of the year whether to include emissions from international shipping and aviation in the UK’s Climate Change Act and carbon budgets. It must decide in favour of inclusion, otherwise it’s again undermining and watering down commitments under the Climate Change Act.
Both of these decisions are fundamentally about what kind of future society and economy we want. The wrong decisions would undermine the flourishing green economy and the UK’s world-leading climate commitments. The right decisions will set us on a path to a strong green economy that provides green job opportunities for young people.
Photos courtesy of Stop Climate Chaos.
