It’s in the government’s best interests to have a climate Budget. It may not care about the planet – but the people do

Editorial: The chancellor and his colleagues will face the world when they host the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow in November – it won’t do for them to be seen as reluctant to make necessary sacrifices for the planet

This government is known for its aversion to expert advice, and its enthusiasm for “weirdos and misfits” to frame public policy, but it would do well to heed the advice of its own advisory Committee on Climate Change, comprising leading scientists in the field. This was set up by the Climate Change Act 2008 – in a world first for Britain – and is chaired by a Conservative peer, John Selwyn Gummer, the former environment secretary. Of course, none of the aforementioned would recommend it to the self-styled disrupters and mavericks now running the country, but even they might have to admit that the climate emergency is already upon us, and perhaps some urgency about dealing with it is now appropriate.

The committee’s deputy chair, Baroness Brown, has called for a “climate Budget” in March. As it happens, she may have some luck with Sajid Javid, who has recently at least paid lip service to the notion of saving life on Earth. Mr Javid has promised that his 11 March Budget will “prioritise the environment”, and indicated that a programme of £100bn for future projects (albeit not all of them necessarily green) will be unveiled.

It is difficult, however, to see Mr Javid taking the crisis sufficiently seriously to announce all of the necessary radical changes – and action is needed now. The government has a target of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. That, one of Theresa May’s few abiding achievements, was also a global first. It sounds far away, but it is already looking to be in jeopardy through lack of action.