Patrick Harvie has accused Liz Truss of giving "a nod and a wink" to climate change deniers after the Tory leadership favourite suggested scrapping green levies on fuel bills.The Scottish Greens co-leader accused the Foreign Secretary and her leadership rival Rishi Sunak of not being serious on the environment.He told the Record: "I don't think either of them is prepared to start repairing the damage their party has done in government".It comes as Truss and Sunak prepare to go head to head at a Tory hustings in Perth tonight.The rivals to replace Boris Johnson will face questions from party members at the only major campaign event to be held in Scotland.Truss last month suggested that one of her first acts as prime minister would be to temporarily scrap the green levy which helps fund a range of environmental policies.She said she would put in place a "temporary moratorium on the green energy levy to enable businesses and industry to thrive while looking at the best way of delivering net zero".Harvie said there was a "legitimate debate" on whether environmental policies should be funded by levies from energy bills or via general taxation.He added: "Liz Truss is talking about tax cuts.
It's more likely you would see work on energy efficiency being reduced when it needs to be stepped up dramatically."Rather than a serious, well thought out policy, it's just intended to be a nod and a wink to the climate deniers that are prominent in the Tory ranks - and not just in the party membership, but also in parliament."This policy is a nod to people who call themselves net zero sceptics, people who want to slow down the work on the climate response."The only reason we have to do this fast is because they prevented it from happening
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