CLIMATE activists tore into claims by Chancellor Philip Hammond today that reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 would “cost Britain” more than £1 trillion.

In a leaked letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Hammond warned that Britain would not meet interim “carbon budgets” to cut emissions and argued a new target would require increased government spending, taken from other departments.

Greenpeace UK’s Dr Doug Parr accused the Treasury however of “putting their ideology before our wellbeing” and failing to include the benefits of a switch to a net zero economy including cleaner air, warmer homes and “maximising the chances of civilisation surviving.”

Mr Parr said: “The Treasury needs to put the necessity of a green future above nostalgia for a time when environmental threats could be dismissed as a niche issue.

“If reality doesn’t fit with their models, it’s the models that need to change.”

A spokesperson from activist group Extinction Rebellion told the Star: “The cost of transitioning to a carbon-free economy will undoubtedly be large, but it will pale in comparison to the cost of firefighting the environmental and social catastrophes that will become ever more frequent if we don’t act now.

“It is also impossible to talk about the cost of continuing with business as usual just in terms of money. We are talking about whether our children get to live into old age. Isn’t protecting them worth everything we’ve got?”

Conservation charity WWF chief executive Tanya Steele said the investment required for a “viable planet” will give future generations security and create jobs from new, clean industries.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Mr Hammond “clearly doesn’t get” the climate emergency we face.

“The Tory Party is way overdue in adopting a target already put forward by Labour, and now the Chancellor is creating obstacles to prevent the action we desperately need to take,” Mr McDonnell said.

As reported in the Morning Star yesterday, 15 of Ms May’s current and former cabinet ministers are implicated in climate change denial, including Tory leadership contenders Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

Emissions would have to be largely eliminated from electricity generation, transport and heating, with a switch to renewables, electric vehicles and an end to traditional gas-fired boilers for heating homes under the new target, according to the government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

Any remaining pollution by 2050 from areas such as agriculture and flying will need to be tackled through measures to capture carbon, such as planting trees.

Scientists for Global Responsibility, an independent UK-based membership organisation, tweeted to call on the government to cut spending on nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers instead of health and education services.

Britain has the seventh largest military budget in the world, with the UK Defence Equipment Plan set to cost £180bn over the next 10 years.

The Treasury said it would not comment on leaks, but implied Mr Hammond is not blocking a move to net-zero emissions.

SNP environment spokeswoman Deirdre Brock told the Commons today that Britain’s fossil fuel support for poorer countries is “damaging the coherence of the government’s approach to combating climate change.”

Ms Brock raised concerns that the Department for International Trade could be undermining the work of other government departments.

Fossil fuels made up a “shocking” 99.4 per cent of the UK Export Finance’s energy support to low and middle-income countries in the last financial year, Ms Brock warned.