The government’s green credentials were again called into question with the release of the 2011 Budget. The cancellation of the fuel duty has been criticised by environmental campaigners, as have details concerning the long-awaited Green Investment Bank. It emerged that the bank will not initially have the power to borrow money; it may be able to leverage up to £18 million by 2015, but only if “the target for [national] debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP has been met”.

George Osborne’s carbon floor price has also been mocked by experts; carbon taxation specialist Christian de Perthuis claimed the Chancellor doesn’t understand market economies, noting: “By voluntarily and unilaterally putting a price floor on
carbon for utilities in the UK, Osborne will actually increase the constraint on the UK’s utilities sector but reduce this constraint on all other non-power utilities players subject to the EU-ETS.”

Meanwhile, the end of the fiscal year saw the dissolution of some government- funded bodies, including green advisors, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) (the dismantling of which cost government £800,000). A month previously, the government had published its vision for sustainability, ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Development’, to little fanfare; the SDC’s former head, Jonathon Porritt called it: “without a doubt the most disgraceful government document relating to sustainable development that I have ever seen”.