Brown is not Green - The Prime Minister is shirking the Environmental Challenge

2.35.21pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 26th Oct 2007

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A year on from the publication of the Stern report and promising to "safeguard the planet for the generations to come", the Prime Minister is failing to match up his rhetoric on climate change with actions. This has been confirmed by Gordon Brown's own environmental adviser, Jonathan Porritt, who has accused the Prime Minister of failing to match his words with deeds.

· An internal government paper in August 2007 conceded that Britain "has achieved little so far on renewables", and asked ministers to examine "what options there are for statistical interpretations of the target that would make it easier to achieve", effectively seeking to water down energy targets.

· One of Gordon Brown's first acts as Prime Minister was to downgrade the key cabinet committee on the environment. The Ministerial Committee on Energy and the Environment was previously a full cabinet committee chaired by the Prime Minister, but will now be a sub-committee chaired by the Chancellor.

· Green taxes as a proportion of the total tax burden have fallen from 9.6% to 7.4% since Labour came to power.

· Current efforts to cut Carbon emissions are inadequate. A report by the Cambridge Econometrics think-tank, predicts that the UK will reduce emissions only by 15% by 2020, rather than the target of 26%.

· In a report, published on 3rd August 2007, by the cross-party Draft Climate Change Bill Committee warned that the Climate Change Bill is inadequate and Government's proposals need to be tougher and legally enforceable.

· A coalition of leading environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and Green Alliance have pulled out of government nuclear consultation after accusing Brown of conducting a public relations campaign designed to deliver a preordained policy on new nuclear power.

· Gordon Brown has failed to create the 100,000 new environmental jobs he promised at Labour's autumn 2006 conference.