Braced for the usual spin and greenwash that Greens have learned to expect from the Chancellor on Budget day, the Green Party today points to the Sustainable Development Commission's own advice - which is remarkably close to the Green Party's.
Ahead of last November's Budget, the Greens presented a costed £30bn plan for investment in the new green economy, and estimated that this would create half a million jobs at a conservative estimate.
Now the government's own environmental watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), has called for a similar £30bn package - and estimated it would create £800,000 jobs (1, 2).
In March this year, SDC chairman Sir Jonathan Porritt told journalists that British politicians were "in a state of cognitive dissonance" over the ecological crisis - but that Green Party has been right all along (3).
Sir Jonathan said then:
"Every single one of the issues that the Green Party has been campaigning on for the last 35 years is getting worse and worse, which means that people should no longer put off the day when they accept that the future is either Green or not at all."
"Government is scared and lacks commitment"
Today's the Green Party's executive's policy coordinator Brian Heatley said:
"We would like to see this £30bn invested in insulating buildings, solar energy and other renewables, upgrading the electricity grid, public transport (but not electric cars) and green skills training."
"It's not just us calling for this sort of massive green investment programme, it's the government's very own expert advisors. To completely ignore such considered advice exposes the cynical and shallow politics of appointing and creating such a body in the first place."
"The government is both scared to spend the money and insufficiently committed to the Green agenda."
"The UK can afford this. Most of this is investment, creating a return like energy savings, and it is OK to borrow to invest. And the new jobs will increase the tax take, and reduce money wasted on jobseekers allowance."
He concluded: "The Chancellor's failure to listen to his own Sustainable Development Commission is shocking, irresponsible and costing Britain huge numbers of jobs."
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Notes for editors:
1. This can be downloaded from: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/SND_booklet_w.pdf.
2. The SDC report clearly shows that investing in green measures makes sense where job creation is the goal. It cites the University of Massachusetts PERI study which calculated that a $US100 billion investment in green measures would create 2 million jobs. The PERI study calculated that the same amount would generate just 600,000 jobs if invested in the oil industry and 1.7 million if given to households directly through tax breaks or other measures. PERI identified as priority 'green' investment areas retrofitting buildings, mass transit/freight rail, smart grid, wind power, solar power and next generation biofuels. The Green Party of England & Wales is arguing for all of this except biofuels.
3. See http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2009-03-13-porritt.html.