Tory Shredding Of Environmental Policies Bad Enough That Even CEOs Are Pissed Off

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It was his latest step in a concerted unraveling of existing climate policy. In recent weeks, he has also postponed a range of emissions-cutting measures, including delaying by five years a switch to electric vehicles, and cancelled a major expansion of the country’s high-speed rail network in favor of more car-friendly investments. At his party’s annual conference in Manchester in early October, Sunak declared that the new climate policies were a “pragmatic, proportionate, and realistic approach to reaching net zero” emissions by 2050. But most political analysts saw them as an attempt to mollify his right-wing critics and seduce cash-strapped voters wary of the potential costs of climate action ahead of a general election next year.

The country’s environmentalists and climate scientists are aghast. “On the world stage, these policy changes show that the U.K. is turning its back on a global leadership position,” Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College London, wrote in the journal Nature. “It’s not pragmatic; it’s pathetic,” said David Reay, executive director of the University of Edinburgh’s Climate Change Institute. “The prime minister is playing populist politics with the future of life on Earth,” said BBC naturalist Chris Packham. What was most remarkable was the response of mainstream industry and finance leaders to Sunak’s plans to delay low-carbon requirements. Many of them also called out the retreat, saying it damaged their investment strategies and would make life harder rather than easier for their customers.

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Sunak insists that the net-zero target will still be met in 2050, even as interim targets are delayed. But IPCC chief Skea, choosing his words carefully as a UN officeholder, warned that “what determines global warming is not the timing of net zero, but the pathway by which you get there. The longer you put off action, the greater will be the cumulative CO2 emissions … and therefore the higher the level of warming.” Critics fear that some of Sunak’s ministers are preparing the ground for abandoning net-zero altogether. His newly appointed energy security minister, Claire Coutinho, who is in charge of the net zero policy, used her speech at the party conference to demonize an “elite” of “net-zero zealots.”

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Even industry leaders are angry, noting that their investment strategies geared to meeting low-carbon laws are being undermined. These include construction companies gearing up for higher energy-efficiency standards, and auto manufacturers investing big to meet the 2030 deadline for converting all their production to electric vehicles. Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford in Britain, told reporters that “the U.K. 2030 target is a vital catalyst to accelerate Ford into a cleaner future. Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment, and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three.”

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https://e360.yale.edu/features/ungreening-britain-sunak-climate-change

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