Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
The Tory ‘Clean Growth Scam’
The government’s new environment policy document is full of platitudes, but there will be no market disruption or climate duties, writes ALAN SIMPSON

Energy Secretary Greg Clark launched the government’s Clean Growth Plan last week, claiming that “Britain continues to lead the world in efforts to tackle climate change.”

He ought to have added “and in self-delusion.” If for nothing else, you have to hand it to the government for breathtaking audacity; dressing up abject failure as if it were runaway success.

One year late, and forced to do so only because there is legally obliged to, the government provided a statement to Parliament on how it plans to meet its fifth and sixth carbon budgets. Skip past the flannel. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
ADAPT NOT REPLACE: Ger districts against a backdrop of new high-rise buildings in Ulaanbaatar / Pic: Bearded/Newspaper ‘Number One’/CC
Science and Society / 25 March 2026
25 March 2026

Coal-fired stoves in traditional homes are the primary source of extreme levels of air pollution in over-crowded Ulaanbaatar. As more people become climate-displaced, the situation is likely to worsen, write SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

INTERMINABLE DELAYS: The lifting of a 245-tonne steel dome onto Hinkley Point C's second reactor building, at in Bridgwater, Somerset on July 17 2025 - scheduled to be finished by 2025 it now won’t be until 2031
Features / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

The Communist Party of Britain’s Congress last month debated a resolution on ending opposition to all nuclear power in light of technological advances and the climate crisis. RICHARD HEBBERT explains why

Attendees listen to Brazil’s President Lula during Cop30
Features / 18 November 2025
18 November 2025

From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30

Jiayuguan railway station featuring a taxi stand and local public bus transport, 2017 / Pic: Livewireshock/CC
Features / 10 July 2025
10 July 2025

PAWEL WARGAN juxtaposes the thriving industrial centre Jiayuguan in China, with the prevailing images of decaying East European great industrial cities