An academic has called the Government’s attitude to climate change “half-hearted” after an analysis of official data by Birmingham Eastside revealed only 1% of public spending went on environmental protection in the UK last year.
Claudia Carter, an environmental specialist and lecturer at Birmingham City University, said:
“It’s disappointing to see their lack of effort in actually following through on targets and environmental policies.
“With the current political trends and leadership, I feel we are way off target to be able to facilitate a timely transition to support the world.
“This could potentially be disastrous for the public for now and in the future.”
Public spending data from the Treasury showed that 13.6 billion pounds was spent by the government on ecological issues — less than one-twentieth of the money spent on social protection, the largest category.
Miss Carter said the figures should “sharpen minds”:
“Rather than being pessimistic, we need to adopt more frugal ways of conducting our lives. Responsibility and action need to be evident across all sectors and levels. Everyone can — and needs to — contribute.”
The Government were approached for a comment on this story but did not respond.
