Friends of the Earth has urged chancellor George Osborne to invest in renewable energy in today’s Emergency Budget.

Putting money into renewables and other energy efficiency initiatives would create more jobs and businesses, said FoE. It also called for a green investment bank to be established within a year.

FoE’s executive director Andy Atkins said: “Increasing taxes on pollution can reduce the need for spending cuts to frontline services… the percentage of taxes coming from pollution is lower now than in 1997.

“The cost of switching to a low carbon economy now is far less than the bill we’ll face if we delay action on climate change.”