Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of funding allocated to (a) decarbonisation and (b) protecting and enhancing biodiversity and the natural environment in each of the next three years.

The government uses a range of policy levers – including spending – to achieve its environmental objectives while growing the economy.

The Clean Growth Strategy set out significant investment by the Government in clean growth including £2.5 billion to support low carbon innovation from 2015-2021, £1 billion to support the uptake of ultra-low emissions vehicles and £4.5bn to support development of renewable and low carbon heating through the Renewable Heat Incentive. At Spring Statement there were a number of environmental announcements, including a new Review on the Economics of Biodiversity.

The recent Spending Round provides additional funding for decarbonisation, air quality, and biodiversity including £30m for BEIS to accelerate progress on decarbonisation schemes and £30m for DEFRA to protect and enhance biodiversity. Most programmes already have capital budgets set for 2020/2021. We will set out further details of our plans for decarbonisation in the infrastructure strategy later this year.