The United Kingdom will delay a series of key climate targets to
ease the burden on working people, said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Sunak told reporters he will push back a ban on selling new petrol
and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035, dramatically slow down plans to phase out
gas boilers, and reject calls to regulate efficiency for homeowners, reported
CNN.
The PM reiterated plans to expand oil and gas developments in
Britain’s North Sea and drill for the fossil fuels that environmental groups
condemned. He also announced that the ban on onshore wind will be lifted.
“We’re changing the way we reach Net Zero by 2050 to ease the
burden on working people. Our new approach will be pragmatic, proportionate and
realistic,” Rishi Sunak posted on X along with a video message.
Stating that the UK is already “far ahead” of every other major
country in terms of achieving Net Zero, Sunak said if UK continues on this
path, it might lose the “consent” of people.
Sunak called it a “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic” approach
towards meeting the commitment of reaching Net Zero by 2050.
“We’re absolutely committed to reaching net zero by 2050. But, no
one in Westminster politics to look people in the eye and explains what this
really involves. That’s wrong and it changes now…So today, we are changing our
approach to meeting net zero to ease the burden on working people,” he said in
the video address.
A major policy relief announced by Sunak is the easing of the
transition to electric vehicles, allowing people to buy new petrol-diesel cars
and vans until 2035.
The citizens have also been given more time to replace existing
boilers and they have to make a switch only when they are replacing their
boiler. Also, families that are hit hardest by cost need not make the switch
ever at all, Sunak said.
Sunak further said the UK Government will “stay out” of people’s
lives. He has said all ideas like the government deciding what to eat, keeping
seven different bins in the house, creating new taxes to discourage flying or
taking holidays, and restriction on the number of passengers in the car, will
go now.
“We will never impose these unnecessary and heavy-handed measures
on you the British people. And we will still meet our international commitments
to hit Net Zero by 2050,” Sunak added.
Notably, Sunak’s announcement marks a sharp turn away from a
long-standing political consensus on the climate, just two years after United
Kingdom hosted the crucial COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, and seriously
undermines efforts to portray Britain as a leader in the fight against the
climate crisis, as per CNN.
Boris Johnson, whose premiership included the COP26 and embraced
the net zero pledge, had earlier shot back in a rare public attack on his
former chancellor-turned-political rival. “Business must have certainty about
our net zero commitments,” Johnson said in a statement, calling on Sunak to
give firms “confidence that the government is still committed to Net Zero and
can see the way ahead.”
“We cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for
this country,” CNN quoted Johnson as saying.
Britain is legally required to have reached net zero – meaning the
country would remove from the atmosphere at least as much planet-warming
pollution as it emits – by 2050.
Surveys in UK show that the climate crisis is increasingly high on
the list of British voters’ concerns, and the opposition Labour party has
sought to attack Sunak on what they describe as a “withdrawal from Britain’s
former position as a global leader,” CNN reported.
“Rolling back on key climate commitments as the world is being
battered by extreme flooding and wildfires would be morally indefensible,” CNN
quoted Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth’s head of policy, as saying in a
statement.
The announcement has also drawn criticism from British businesses.
Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, said in a statement that the
automobile giant “needs three things from the UK Government: ambition,
commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three.”
Ed Matthew, Campaigns Director for independent climate change think
tank E3G, said the moves would drive up household bills and “damage the UK’s
ability to compete with other countries on clean technology.”
“Just as the US, China and the EU are racing ahead on green growth,
Rishi Sunak appears ready to surrender,” he said. “The economic damage to the
UK could be catastrophic.”
ANI
