Spend £8bn to kickstart plan to decarbonise economy, chancellor told
Lord Stern is the seminal thinker and writer on climate change and if he is suggesting this to our new Chancellor, he should definitely listen! This story tells us:
The author of a groundbreaking report on the economic impact of climate change has called on Rishi Sunak to spend more than £8bn in his first budget next week to kickstart a “massive and long-term” boost to “zero-carbon infrastructure, new skills and sustainable innovation”.
Lord Stern said the new chancellor had a unique opportunity to address regional inequalities and invest to meet the government’s target for net-zero emissions with measures already highlighted in the Conservative party manifesto.
Stern, who runs the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, told Sunak to focus his efforts on sectors that are “difficult to decarbonise”, such as transport, property and industry.
Sunak is known to be hurriedly rewriting his budget speech for 11 March and earmarking funds to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, possibly delaying measures to improve the UK’s infrastructure.
But he is expected to signal extra spending in the regions over the life of the parliament to 2024, to support Britain reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The report recommends the government use £6.3bn committed for energy efficiency in the 2019 election manifesto to reduce energy waste in buildings, which are responsible for 17% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.