Budget ignores climate emergency, Quakers say
The Chancellor's budget fails to deliver the investment needed to tackle the climate emergency, while protecting increased military spending, Quakers in Britain have said.
With the Rosebank oilfield potentially set for approval and ministers having signed off the Jackdaw gas field last week, Quakers say the government is failing to match the urgent need for climate action.
"This budget is a missed opportunity to reset our priorities and invest in what truly makes us safe: peace, justice, human wellbeing and a liveable planet," said Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain.
"Instead, it risks deepening our reliance on military spending while failing to meet the urgent need to move away from the fossil fuels that are destroying our planet, threatening our livelihoods and undermining our shared future."
In parliament, Healey said the government remained committed to net zero by 2050 but announced little new investment to get there.
The new Energy Wealth Fund will invest in renewable and low-carbon projects, partly using North Sea oil and gas taxes.
But North Sea production is already declining, with Government revenues from oil and gas falling to £4.3 billion in 2025/26 from £9 billion three years earlier.
Healey also announced that green levies – like paying an annual supplement to the first wind farms – will be taken off energy bills and the costs moved into general taxation.
Quakers in Britain raised concerns over the Chancellor's announcement that AI companies would be allowed to generate their own power for new data centres until they were connected to the National Grid.
These could include gas power stations, adding to fossil fuel emissions.
Military Spending
On military spending, Healey said the Defence Investment Plan would be fully funded, with a £4.7bn gap filled by moving capital spending from other departments.
This will include the Department for Energy and Net Zero, meaning that important climate expenditure will be moved to increase military spending.
Hannah Brock Womack, peace lead for Quakers in Britain, said: "The UK is already the world's sixth highest military spender, and we know that climate change is driving many global conflicts.
"Yet instead of investing in peace by working to mitigate the climate emergency, the Chancellor has cut funding for that work to pay for more weapons.
"These cuts will finance the Defence Investment Plan at the expense of projects and jobs, while the Chancellor's move to boost public-private partnerships risks repeating the costly failures of the Private Finance Initiatives of the past."