Cameron’s ‘green growth’ policy looks naive today; it will look cynical in 2027

Not for the first time, the prime minister was happily promoting the irreconcilable. “By stepping up, showing leadership and competing with the world,” he announced last week, “the UK can prove that there need not be a tension between green and growth”. It could have been worse. After the Treasury and the business department tried to scupper the UK’s long-term carbon targets, David Cameron stepped in to rescue them.