Was this a budget for climate and nature?
Today’s budget provided around £130 million in new green public investment, mainly focused on industrial decarbonisation. The chancellor has provided new money for a hub in Holyhead to generate hydrogen for use in HGVs; an ‘energy transition zone’ to move the North Sea oil and gas industry towards greener fuels and technologies; and some new innovation investment for floating offshore wind and energy storage tech. He also announced two new finance mechanisms to encourage private investment in green spending: a new green sovereign bond and a green retail national investment and savings product. Changes are afoot at the Bank of England as well – including a new ‘net zero’ remit for the Monetary Policy Committee – although there’s some confusion as to what that will mean in practice.
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In a week’s time, the government will unveil its first budget. It will be keen to deliver on the big spending promises pledged in the Conservative manifesto, particularly in the newly won northern constituencies. The manifesto also promised to prioritise the environment. 
This post is by Colin Hines, convenor of the UK 
In British politics, governing is as much performance art as it is accounting. Even ‘Fiscal Phil’, that most studious scrutiniser of the spreadsheet knows this. Perhaps this is why his green headlines ahead of the budget were about a single use plastics tax, a clampdown on dirty diesels and a push on EVs. These followed a green October, with Michael Gove ditching neonicotinoids and consulting on a bottle deposit scheme, and Claire Perry producing a 
The chancellor described his budget as taking bold decisions to “act now so we don’t pay later.” Osborne announced £730 million of funding for “less established” renewables and endorsed storage, demand response and interconnection. Half an hour before the Budget, the prime minister had said the UK would cut power sector emissions by 85 per cent by 2030, which is consistent with the 
