Government emissions up despite recession - Hughes

1.45.50pm GMT Thu 25th Mar 2010

Commenting on provisional Government figures showing that public sector carbon emissions in 2009 were up on 2007 levels in spite of the recession, Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Simon Hughes said:

"It's a travesty that while businesses and others are trying to pull their weight, Government and public sector emissions have actually increased in spite of the recession.

"No-one believes Labour will make the sustained emissions cuts we need when it's taken a severe recession to cause real reductions.

"It is time to seriously invest in protecting our future. Only the Liberal Democrats have the bold plans we need to rebalance the economy and create green jobs, putting us on a path to a zero carbon Britain."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Table 7 of the Government's statistical release shows that public sector emissions in 2009 are up on 2007 levels, despite falls across every other sector. Between 2008 and 2009, they fell by just 0.1% http://www.decc.gov.uk/media/viewfile.ashx?filepath=statistics/climate_change/1_20100325084241_e_@@_ghgnationalstatsrelease.pdf&filetype=4