Last week marked an important day in the political calendar as Alistair Darling announced Britain’s Budget. It  was a highly anticipated session in the Commons as Britain is in the worst recession since World War II according to David Cameron, leader of the opposition. One of the main aspects of the budget was the emphasis on preparing Britain to “take advantages of the opportunities of the future” according to Darling. At the heart of this ambition is to ensure Britain moves forward in an environmentally sustainable way and has produced the world’s first ‘carbon budget’. Green Britain is big on the agenda.

In a bid to revive the automotive industry and create a more energy efficient Britain, today it was announced that a new scrappage scheme would be put in place to give owners of cars over 10 years old £2,000, if they exchanged them for new ‘green’ models. It was envisaged that this would help increase jobs, create a u-turn in the car industry and make Britain a better place.

Darling has also pledged £435 million extra to deliver energy efficient homes, firms and public buildings. This in itself should create more jobs and develop an efficient way of sustaining our energy sources. His ambition is to create a world leading renewable energy operation by investing a massive £525 million into the development of major off-shore wind technologies over the next 2 years which can act as a substitute to our traditional energy sources. In addition, the government will invest an extra £405 million to encourage low carbon energy and advanced green manufacturing. However, these figures are dwarfed by the £4 billion investment in renewable energy projects over the next few years.

Finally, new power plants that combine the traditional and energy efficient sources will be exempt from climate change levy from 2013. This poses a big incentive for energy firms to literally, ‘clean up their acts’. One thing is for certain this new ‘Green is Good’ mantra is here to stay.