Talk of a ‘green recovery’ by the UK government may just be public relations exercise after a new report accused governments of spending more money on fossil fuels than they do on low-carbon energy. The Energy Policy Tracker has investigated the so-called rescue measures produced by many of the G20 group of countries with the biggest economies in the world. It’s research has gound that £120bn of cash has been earmarked for fossil fuel projects, compared to just £71bn of clean energy. Unsurprisingly the USA is one of the worst culprits according to the report spending £141 per capita on the fossil fuel industry, compared to just £61 per capita spent on green energy. The rescue packages for economies have included spending on airlines and stabilising the plummeting oil prices in effort to preserve jobs and some of the hardest hit industries. “Is the support with no strings or is it asking something in return? We have examples of [countries that] impose conditions. We would look to see more of this happening,” said Ivetta Gerasimchuk, one of the authors of the damning report. “We have some anecdotal evidence on these sectors which suggests that total green recovery numbers can be higher. Similarly, global environmentally harmful recovery numbers can be higher as there are measures leading to deforestation, land degradation, overfishing, etc. A lot of government support policies remain unquantified.” Just last month it was reported that the carbon dioxide levels across the globe had rebounded from their previously record lows with emissions for the whole of 2020 only likely to be between four and seven per cent lower than last year.