PM's green adviser blasts race for growth

Edonomic growth must be scaled down to save the environment, Tony Blair's chief "green" adviser said today.

Sir Jonathan Porritt issued a challenge to Chancellor Gordon Brown in a wide-ranging report warning that the race for growth is putting the planet at risk.

It attacked the expansion of airports and roads, saying they were "out of control" and threatened permanent damage to the world.

The former Friends of the Earth director claimed the Government was "deluded" to think it was doing enough to stave off a growing environmental crisis. In reality, Britain's green policies are inadequate-and are "adding to the world's problems", Sir Jonathan warned in a report by the Government's Sustainable Development Commission.

He said: "We see a world in which many natural resources are being dangerously depleted, in which biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate, in which many forms of pollution are spreading, which is gravely threatened by long-term climate change and in which the total impact of the UK's activity is adding to the world's problems."

Increases in roads and air travel were a particular menace, the report claimed. "Air and road transport are growing out of control, undoing the modest progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere."

The warning will fuel protests from local campaigners against plans to expand Stansted and Heathrow airports. Green protesters have accused ministers of deliberately overlooking the problems of air pollution in the dash to provide cheap travel.

Sir Jonathan was appointed chairman of the commission by Mr Blair with a brief to criticise government policies and suggest changes.