Sunak Defends Row Back on Key Climate Change Policies
Prime Minister insists new policies won’t stop the country reaching net-zero by 2050 but says families won’t have to pay an unaffordable price to get there.
Rishi Sunak has defended the changes made to several climate policy pledges by delaying the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles and weakened plans to phase out oil and gas boilers.
He insisted he wasn’t watering down the government’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions but says he was doing it in a way that eases the burden on households.
The former president at the COP26 summit Alok Sharma has told the BBC the changes have led to consternation in the international community.
Sir Bob Watson, who led the UN body the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change for 5 years disagrees with the Prime Minister and says there are two basic issues:
1. Eventually getting to net-zero by 2050
2. Real reductions to emissions between now and 2030.
He goes on to say that “if the world were to try to achieve the Paris target of 1.5 degrees C, then we would need a 50% reduction in emissions today, if we allow the world to warm to 2 degrees C, we will still need 25% reductions in emissions by 2030”.
Rishi defends his actions by saying, “we’ve decarbonised faster than any other major economy in the G7” and “our targets to continue decarbonizing through to 2030 are more ambitious than pretty much any other major economy in the world”.
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