DAVID Cameron and George Osborne have been accused of acting in a way “totally hypocritical on climate change” by Friends of the Earth.
The environmental group have launched a blistering attack on the UK Government ahead of Climate Secretary Amber Rudd’s appearance at the Paris summit today, claiming that Cameron’s environmental rhetoric isn’t matched by the economic policies of George Osborne.
In his Autumn statement Osborne scrapped the £1 billion prize for Carbon Capture Storage, a key element of the government’s climate policy.
Craig Bennett from Friends of the Earth said: “The government is totally hypocritical on climate change. George Osborne’s anti-environmental policy decisions fly the opposite way to the low-carbon route the vast majority of other countries are pursuing.
“There is a total mismatch between his policies and the warm words of David Cameron. The reality is that on energy policy the chancellor is effectively prime minister already.”
The Tory Government has received harsh criticism in Paris for their decision to move funding out of the international aid budget to another pot of cash to to help poor nations get clean technology and to adapt to climate change.
A spokesman for the Least Developed Countries in Paris told BBC News said there should be enough money for both: “The Copenhagen climate meeting made it clear – climate finance should be new and additional funds, which means it should not come from foreign aid – which is meant for development.
“Think of it like building a road. You use the aid money for the road, but if temperatures rise due to climate change, you will have to thicken the tarmac, which is an extra cost.
“If you build a road which is liable to flood due to rising sea levels, you will need to build in flood protection, which is again additional to development. It’s that simple.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Government are to invest an extra £12m into the Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Fund.
Nicola Sturgeon will announce the funding during a speech in Paris. The fund currently supports 11 projects in Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia,
During the speech the First Minister is expected to say Scotland backs calls “for an ambitious agreement” that “is capable of limiting temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius.”
She will also say that the “most vulnerable are worst affected by climate change”
“So, the people who have done least to cause climate change, and are least equipped to cope with its consequences, are the people who are being hit hardest. The scale of the injustice is massive. “
Scottish Labour’s environmental justice spokesperson Sarah Boyack said the Scottish Government’s commitment to abolishing Air Passenger Duty would be a disaster for the environment.
“Nicola Sturgeon is going to the climate change conference in Paris despite having a headline tax policy which will increase emissions by 50,000 tonnes a year,” she said.
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