Sunak retreats from climate action while Europe burns

No one with an ounce of common sense doubts that this repeating pattern of superhot weather is down to humanity’s carbon emissions and that a bleak future awaits unless we make strenuous efforts to cut them. Unfortunately even in a cost-of-living crisis, measures to tackle climate change cannot be put aside, so little time do we have to avert its worst consequences.

But not for Rishi Sunak is it a burning issue. No; he has chosen this moment to signal dissent over the decades-old cross-party consensus on tackling climate change.

This – a dereliction of responsibility at the moment of maximum urgency – shows up Mr Sunak as the inadequate politician he is.

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Sunak is the unelected technocrat Prime Minister whose shortcomings of imagination and leadership have become painfully clear. One wonders what Mr Sunak thinks he is in office for at this historic moment if not to drive forward Britain’s leadership on climate change and reinvigorate Britain’s economy through a green transformation? How does he imagine he will be judged by posterity?

All he had to do was stick to the programme set by his predecessors. The political capital has already been spent. There is strong public and cross-party support for the government taking climate action, which put the Prime Minister in a position of strength. Achieving net zero is perhaps the only issue of the last 15 years of bearpit politics besides the war in Ukraine to command this cross-party unity.

But this isn’t just about the climate. Politicians in all parties can see that the green transformation is key to future British prosperity.

It will bring about an economic renaissance with huge rewards in jobs, lower energy bills and improved energy security. It will help with household living costs.

Britain has been a leader in this field, but other nations, led by the United States, are racing to seize the initiative and if Britain hesitates now, we’ll be left behind. Setting and implementing measures to achieve net zero signals to business that the government is serious about decarbonisation, giving companies the certainty they need to invest.

Nigel Farage (Image: PA)

But Mr Sunak doesn’t seem concerned even about this. We know he cares little about climate change: that much was clear when he told the media that his children were the climate champions in his house. Climate change doesn’t feature in his five priorities in government, as chancellor he seemed indifferent to it and insiders say he shows no personal interest in the issue.

Even so, he might have stuck the course set for him, were it not for the weakness of his position and his party’s awful poll ratings.

Last week’s Uxbridge by-election was the catalyst for the Prime Minister’s querying of the key measures put in place to achieve net zero. The policy blamed for losing Labour the election – the extension of London’s ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) by Labour mayor Sadiq Khan – is about air pollution, not net zero, but no matter, it is all “green crap” to right-wing Conservatives.

The by-election has given Labour pause for thought too, but shadow ministers, while acknowledging that measures must be affordable for people, have not suggested reneging on key targets. Even Boris Johnson stood firm on this stuff. But the Tories under Rishi Sunak are a different matter.

This week, we’ve all had to watch Tory ministers rowing in behind right-wing demagogue Nigel Farage over his bank account, endorsing the narrative of Farage’s victimhood in the fable of the former trader and the elite bank. Even the Prime Minister made known his “concern”.

Ever an appeaser of the hard right, Mr Sunak is now following Farage’s cue on net zero.

You could see it coming a mile off. Farage and intransigent Brexiteer types in the Tory ranks like Steve Baker and David Frost have been gunning for the government’s climate strategy for years.

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It’s no surprise really. Backing Brexit and dissing net zero require the same wilful blindness to bald facts. Brexit for diehards was always about deregulation at all costs and so deadlines to phase out carbon infrastructure has them seething with rage. And as with Brexit, attacking net zero looks like a jolly good ruse to win a few votes, even if it’s against the best interests of the nation.

Such is the threat the hard right poses to Conservative party unity, and so weak is Rishi Sunak, that it was inevitable the Prime Minister would be susceptible to their agenda.

Sure enough, Downing Street has announced a reevaluation of the government’s previous commitments on climate change. Sunak says he doesn’t want to “hassle” people with measures to reach net zero, as if what’s at stake were a tax return deadline rather than a liveable future for our children.

Energy efficiency targets for private rented homes, the phasing out of gas boilers by 2035 and low traffic neighbourhoods, are all under review. Michael Gove insisted that the 2030 deadline for phasing out petrol and diesel cars was “immovable” but only after Downing Street said it remained under review – hardly reassuring.

Expect the Tories to keep telling you they are committed to reaching net zero by 2050 while simultaneously undermining the measures they’d put in place to achieve it.

There is thankfully a large group of Tory MPs who are not so cowardly. The 150 parliamentarians of the Conservative Environment Network have come out fighting this week, pushing Rishi Sunak to stand firm on climate change.

But still Sunak toys with retreat. It speaks volumes that he does. A true statesman recognises when you have to do the right thing, ahead of narrow party considerations. Rishi Sunak, it appears, is no such statesman. The best thing for Britain’s climate strategy would be to get a new Prime Minister.