KEY POINTS:
The Green Party says the Budget is a "greenwash", delivering only tiny steps towards sustainability.
Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the Budget suggested the Government was trying to bolster its failing support by tapping into New Zealanders' growing concern for the environment.
"But scratch the surface and you find it largely greenwash."
Environment Minister David Benson-Pope and Climate Change Minister David Parker yesterday announced a "bold and exciting programme" on the environment.
Mr Benson-Pope said it was the biggest investment a Government had ever made in putting the country on the path to greater sustainability.
The most significant initiatives are the allocation of $650 million for rail improvements in Auckland and Wellington, and national rail improvements.
The Government will spend just over $30 million on sustainability measures, including a household sustainability programme, a network of public recycling facilities, business partnerships, enhanced eco-verification and shifting the public service towards carbon neutrality.
Spending will include $23 million for interest-free loans to help homeowners pay for energy efficiency and clean heating.
But Ms Fitzsimons said that without pressure from the Green Party, changes such as the electrification of the Auckland rail system, improvements to Wellington rail, the energy-efficient homes package, serious biodiversity protection and a solar water heating initiative would not have been in the Budget.
"This Budget will make us just a teensy-weensy bit more sustainable in a few years, with carbon emissions growing only slightly more slowly than they are now," she said.
"This is very far from reaching the Prime Minister's aspirational goal of a carbon-neutral New Zealand."
Ms Fitzsimons said that if the Government was truly committed to sustainability, it would have given its business tax cuts to companies which invested in reducing their carbon footprint.
"Instead, these are being indiscriminately handed out to polluters and conservers, fossil and renewable energy suppliers and users, organic and highly chemical farmers, good employers and bad, innovators and laggards in technology."
Greenpeace climate campaigner Vanessa Atkinson said it was disappointing that for all the Government's rhetoric about climate change, it seemed incapable of putting its money where its mouth was.
"The Prime Minister designated this year as one for sustainability. Well, you wouldn't know it from the Budget." Spending on sustainability was underwhelming.
