Sorry for the sad headlines, but why not follow the crowd - after all, the name just asks for it, and I’m afraid to say that my respect for the man has not increased dramatically following his performance of the other day.

This was billed as ‘the greenest budget yet’. Probably the cleverest part of the whole speech, as this wasn’t exactly difficult. What’s more, the green ‘bit’ started with some promise, as Alistair Darling confirmed that the government takes global warming very seriously, and recognised the importance of acting, and acting now…. except he then went on to pretty much postpone all the acting till a later date, immediately ruining the effect of this statement and, for me at any rate, preparing us for a series of disappointing promises.

This is what we got:

• The proposed increase in fuel duty by 2p is delayed until October in order to help the economy
• The government will ask the Climate Change committee to advise them on whether CO2 reduction targets for 2050 should be raised from 60% to 80%
• Carbon budgets will be announced alongside the budget as of next year
• Energy companies are to encourage us to reduce our electricity consumption
• If supermarkets don’t take action on reducing the use of plastic bags, a charge will be imposed on them as of 2009
• £26 million has been allocated to a Green Homes Service
• New non-domestic buildings must be CO2 neutral by 2019
• Revenue from plane duty is increased by 10%
• New tax bands will be introduced to punish those with polluting cars / encourage the purchase of less-polluting cars
• As of 2010, a special first year charge will be introduced - new cars emitting under 130 grammes of CO2 will be free of tax for that year, whilst high-polluting cars will have an increased tax - effectively a forecourt tax.

So how would I translate all of the above? Lots of promises to do things in the future - hmmm, not much urgency there, threats about plastic bags (apparently to keep Daily Mail readers happy), good intentions about zero Carbon businesses, a bit more money from the airlines (I wonder where it will be spent? Maybe it can go towards building the new runway…), no car tax for green cars in their first year as of 2010 (wow, an incentive!), and punishment for gas guzzlers.

Frankly, it’s not much, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the statement that ‘the need to take action is urgent’. I know that things take time to put in place in government, but this is a budget that commits to do not very much over the next 2 years, and to talk about doing some other things in the future. And, of course, there’s no real ‘carrot’ to encourage us to take action ourselves. In fact the famous system of grants for microgeneration seems to have vanished!

I know we’re entering a recession, that money is tight, that the government’s priority is to try to see us through it safe, but reducing our CO2 emissions gives us an opportunity to save money, something we need to do right now. What’s more it is urgent to do things now, not next year, and certainly not in 2016!

This may have been the greenest budget yet, but it won’t make a difference. The UK, leading Europe in its apathy towards reducing emissions.

Tomorrow Alistair Darling announces his new Budget for the UK. This is an opportunity for him and his party to actual concretise some of the past promises they have made about ensuring that the UK leads Europe in its approach to the environment. It’s also an opportunity to counter the more than justified criticism of existing policies, or rather the lack thereof. Basically, Darling needs to put place some clear, firm and positive measures to show that Labour really is taking Global Warming and the reduction of CO2 seriously.

We do already have a few teasers - or at least all the newspapers are saying the same things. So-called ‘gas guzzlers’ are likely to be punished with a forecourt tax aiming to discourage people from buying them in the first place. Tax discs may be marked more clearly to indicate emissions levels of different cars.  There are even suggestions of more radical proposals such as making parking more expensive for vehicles with higher emissions. Continuing with vehicles, energy companies will apparently be forced to increase the amount of biofuels (sustainably source, of course) they sell on a yearly basis - maybe a good move, but as we know from ongoing discussions, not one to please many environmentalists, and certainly not the ideal long term solution.

These proposals are all very well, but they certainly don’t show the government getting tough on the environment, and neither will raising green taxes or continuing to increase duty on fuel. This we’ve seen before, and, quite frankly, the impact will be minimal. So the question is, does Mr Darling have any surprises, real surprises, hidden under his hat?

Well we can hope, but what should we hope for? Personally I have one hope, although I fear it will not be fulfilled: as well as continuing with the deterrent approach - mostly taxing emissions - it’s time to do like Germany and introduce incentives, specifically a reasonable, interesting, Fee-in tarif for anyone producing surplus electricity via renewable sources. Just in case you’re not sure what this is, it’s really simple - if you generate electricity for your home or business via a renewable source - solar, wind, geothermal - and you produce more than your building requires, you can sell it back to the grid. This generates revenue, enabling you to pay back your investment in renewable energy faster (the cost to install a solar voltaic system for a 3 bedroom house is in the region of £20,000 today).

Germany is today the leader in electricity generation from sources such as wind and solar, and installations outnumbered those in the UK by as much as 1,000 to 1 last year. Why? Because people had a reason to invest beyond just ‘being green’. Because they had a way to pay off their investment within a reasonable period.

So I’m crossing my fingers for tomorrow, but I’m not holding out much hope. I will however continue to rant about this: we all know - governments included - that we need to move fast, and instead of just using the infamous ’stick’, this government needs to provide some ‘carrots’ - real, tangible ones.

So it’s official, or I suppose so as the Queen herself has read it out. The UK is to become the first country to introduce legally binding targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the UK.

The bill will enforce targets of a 26-32% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 and 60% or more by 2050. A new independent committee on climate change will be established, to advise the government on achieving these targets, and other measures will include reinforcing the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, which aims to reduce emissions from the transport sector via the introduction of bio-fuels.

On the surface, this is excellent news, and according to the papers it has been welcomed by environmental groups, but it does bring a few questions to my mind:

• How does the government expect to hit the 2020 target? Last we heard, they are already paving the way to missing the EU target of generating 20% of energy via renewable energy sources by a long way, and this has to be the key to reducing overall emissions.
• What rôle will emissions trading play in achieving these targets? Based on where we are today, I would guess a huge rôle, and for me, this is the equivalent of cheating. When a government says ‘we will reduce UK CO2 emisssions’, they need to be talking about CO2 emissions generated in the UK, not elsewhere.
• The RTFO aims to introduce the use of bio-fuels to the transport sector. Are bio-fuels the real answer? Certainly not if they are produced from crops grown in poor African countries, reducing food supplies, and increasing food prices.

I would love to believe that this is a massive step forward, but my feeling is that it is just a delaying tactic, shoring up the very dodgy foundations of the current government’s reputation on CO2 emission reduction. It looks great on the surface, but there’s very little substance behind. Let’s hope that the new environment panel comes up with some serious and realistic recommendations and, more to the point, let’s hope the government puts them into action.

Following my article of August 22nd on the UK Government’s attempts to worm out of the ‘Binding renewable energy targets’ set in March 2007, we seem to have confirmation this week that operation ‘worm out’ is now being officially put into action. Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister (should we be calling him the ‘As long as it’s not renewable Energy Minister’?) has apparently confirmed that Britain will source ‘up to 15%’ of its energy from renewables by 2020, although this is apparently not to be construed as ‘backing away’ from the EU target of 20%, which has to be achieved ‘across Europe as a whole’.

Well there goes any claim the UK ever might have had to be a ‘leader’ in renewable energy, although, to be honest, did anyone every think we were, apart from some politicians who took the approach of ‘if we say it, maybe people will think it’?

The two things that disappoint me most are this:

1. The apparent reason for giving up already and so easily. From what I understand, the Government does not judge the problem important enough to take on the investment required to achieve these targets, targets that do not go nearly far enough to solving the problem. They also are not willing to adopt incentive schemes that work so well elsewhere in Europe and, above all, they are set on a path with Nuclear as a major solution, even if it is hugely expensive, always potentially dangerous, only a part of a CO2 reduction solution, and will take as much as 20 years to put in place. Oh, and there’s also the potentially very lucrative new market in carbon trading that needs to be exploited, as we championed it. So it’s basically about money then. Hmmm.
2. The fact that there is so much potential in the UK to hit and beat these targets, but without leadership it is going to be extremely difficult to achieve anything

I feel disappointed and let down, though not surprised. I have decided to do my best to help people find ways to reduce their CO2 emissions, but, everywhere I turn, I encounter news like this. The easy solution would be to move to Germany, and feel good about things again. The only solution is just to try harder. If we have to do this without our government, then we will, but, if there was an election tomorrow, I wouldn’t vote for this one on current form.