Women’s Budget Group Response to Prime Minister Changing of Green Policies

Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech today, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget Group said,

“Like so many others, we are aghast at the Prime Minister’s plans to slash his Government’s green targets and weaken their plans to meet net zero. The climate crisis and the impacts of rising temperatures around the world – including here in the UK – are too important to be deployed for perceived political gains.”

“It is also shortsighted: the voting public support policies needed to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels; bring down household bills and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events. Any party with its sights on governing the UK after the next election needs to take environmental and ecological breakdown extremely seriously just as the public does.”

“Far from backtracking on the commitments already made, the Government should be more ambitious. Economic policies need to move us towards a Green and Caring Economy; one that would prioritise environmental and ecological sustainability; the health and wellbeing of the population; and an end to the widening inequalities we are seeing at the moment.”

“It is time to end our obsession with GDP and economic growth above all else – including the habitability of the planet”. ​

For more information or further comment, contact

erin.mansell@wbg.org.uk / press@wbg.org.uk / 07799116631

About the Women’s Budget Group

The UK Women’s Budget Group (WBG) is the UK’s leading feminist economics think tank, providing evidence and analysis on women’s economic position and proposing policy alternatives for a gender-equal economy. We act as a link between academia, the women’s voluntary sector and progressive economic think tanks.