For moss green, read mint cream. Remember the famous photo of David Cameron driving a team of huskies across the imperilled arctic ice or his bold declaration that his would be the  greenest government ever ? Compare that with this week s autumn statement from George Osborne, which bore only the palest of mint cream tinges.  There were brief references to the disappointingly small and restricted green investment bank and a bit of rail electrification. The anglo-Scottish sleeper will be spruced up (if the SNP at Holyrood can conjure up matching funding at short notice. Big if). However, future historians trying to pinpoint the death of the Coalition Government s green ambitions, need look no further than the Chancellor s words on Tuesday.  We are not going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills, aluminium smelters and paper manufacturers,  or what about the  ridiculous costs  foisted on British businesses by countryside protection legislation or the  burden  of environmental goals? The overall message, designed to appeal to the Tory right-wing, was that environmental aims should come second to the economy.  Mr Osborne has always been the palest green member of the Government. He was the one who told the Tory conference that the UK would not lead the EU in the effort to cut carbon emissions. But until now the climate change optimists among us had allowed ourselves to believe that environmental ministers like Greg Barker and Chris Huhne understood the issues and would ensure that Britain showed leadership on the issue. Silly us.  after all, he who pays the piper ... So now we have ?250 million more being pumped into energy intensive industries like cement works to offset carbon-related taxes, reducing yet further their incentive to save energy. He also whipped off the table the ?1 billion set aside for a prototype carbon capture and storage scheme, despite the well-developed Shell/SSE plan for Peterhead. and he announced road-building schemes and runway development and cancelled the 3p a litre fuel duty due in January, tilting the