Carbon Brief analysis of the language used in the autumn statement shows change climate given a low priority

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s 2023 autumn statement was presented as a plan for growing the UK economy, and addressing cost of living pressures through tax cuts and other measures.

Analysis carried out by Carbon Brief found that Hunt used climate-related keywords less in his latest speech than in his first autumn statement in 2022, or in the spring statement earlier this year, and that he did not specifically mention “climate” at all.

The graph tells a story of the prominence and salience of climate change set against economic considerations at different moments in the past decade-and-a-half.