Sunak offers £3 billion for the green economy when £100bn is needed

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As the Guardian notes this morning:

Rishi Sunak is to announce a £3bn package of green investment to decarbonise public buildings and cut emissions from Britain's poorly insulated homes as part of the government's Covid-19 economic recovery plan.

They add:

The chancellor will seek to use Wednesday's summer statement on the economy to fend off criticism that his proposals lack ambition by insisting that he can “kick start” an environment-friendly revival through the creation of thousands of green jobs in the construction industry.

Sunak will say that the extra money for decarbonising houses, schools, hospitals, prisons and military bases will help the UK meet its target of being a carbon net zero economy by 2050, and is likely to say that further green spending will be announced later in the year.

This is pathetic. And it shows that we really are in deep trouble.

There is near-universal agreement that we are heading for mass unemployment in the UK, on a scale that almost no one now alive has seen in their lifetimes.

And there is almost unanimous agreement that whatever threat coronavirus created it is but nothing compared to what is to come from the environmental and biodiversity crises that we face.

I estimate it will cost £100bn a year for a decade to address this issue. And I have shown how to fund that.

And Sunak thinks £3bn will keep anyone happy? This is a pinprick. It will not deliver even a tiny percentage of the jobs that will be required. And it certainly does not deliver the green economy we must have.

Pathetic is too kind to it: this is an insult to everyone who cares about the future of our planet.

Worryingly, it is a sign of a government that does not care.


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