Chart of the Week: COP or budget, which is it?

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In the week prior to the UK hosting the UN climate conference COP26, perhaps the last good opportunity to deliver tangible actions to achieve the Paris climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5^oC above pre-industrial levels, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a budget which included several measures which run directly counter to that green agenda. Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011 and he announced that it will remain frozen for another financial year, effectively cutting duties in real terms. This is despite the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans being banned from 2030 and the Treasury’s own ‘red book’ stating, “Future fuel duty rates will be considered in the context of the UK’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.” That context appears to have been ignored. There was also a cut in air passenger duty for domestic flights within the UK, despite airlines being one of the most emission-intensive sectors in the UK.

The budget document contained a section on green investment (hardly mentioned during Mr Sunak’s speech) which was short on detail, largely reiterating commitments announced over the past year. The government did publish its Net Zero Strategy earlier this month, which laid out high-level plans to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, but this was also short on detail. As world leaders gather to discuss global green strategies, the UK budget seriously undermines the UK’s credibility in those discussions: not the best starting point for COP26.

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