Ahead of November’s COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow this November, one could have expected the UK’s budget for 2021 to indicate leading strides towards the country’s target to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But, distracted by economic hardship, climate change has taken a backseat in this year’s agenda – even compared to last year’s budget, which was released at the height of Covid-19 frenzy. There are several positives to take from the budget, but in general the issues lie in what is missing, rather than what has been included. Compared to the 2020 budget – which was also fairly lackluster – where the word ‘climate’ appeared 31 times, the 2021 budget only made space for 9 mentions. The…