British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering weakening the UK’s commitments to net zero in a bombshell policy shift.
The UK’s gas car phase-out rollback
Sunak is preparing to present the rollbacks in a speech he’s expected to deliver in days. Downing Street isn’t denying the rollbacks.
After seeing documents, the BBC says he may be announcing such policy changes as the government pushing back the ban on the sale of new gas cars from 2030 – which was put in place by PM Boris Johnson in 2020 – to 2035.
He’s also expected to say that the phase-out of gas boiler installations by 2035 will be weakened to just 80% by the same year. There will also be no measures to encourage carpooling or no new energy efficiency regulations on homes, among other announcements.
There’s overwhelming anger about these anticipated rollbacks on Twitter (X) (and, frankly, I don’t see any support, although the BBC cites some from a couple of Tories). Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, the former chair of the UK government’s net zero review, just had this to say about the prime minister’s impending announcement:
And Green MP for Brighton Pavilion posted:
And Sunak is digging his heels in in response to the backlash:
Electrek’s Take
Sunak is a member of the Conservative Party, and what’s interesting is that he’s rolling back policies not set by another political party but by former Conservative PM Boris Johnson.
PM Johnson released a 10-point plan in November 2020 for a “green industrial revolution,” and one of the 10 points was moving to EV sales only by 2030.
Top comment by OV
The most important bit of context for non-Brits: Boris Johnson not only resigned as prime minister last year, but he also resigned from being an MP a few months ago there was a by-election to fill his seat (Uxbridge, in London).
Everyone and their mums expected the seat to go to Labour - the Conservatives' popularity has been crashing over the past few years, as well as Johnson's - but it defied the odds and stayed Conservative. The main reason cited was that the mayor of London (who is a Labour politician) expanded the ultra-low emissions zone, and did so fast enough and with insufficient scrappage incentives that the Londoners in the area (which included Uxbridge) felt aggrieved.
The anti-green Conservatives jumped on this like a swarm of locusts. Every political party has infighting problems, but the Conservatives have been especially bad ever since Johnson stepped down. Sense and strategy seem to be a thing of the past, with the stance of the general public (who still mostly support green policy) being less important than whatever posturing is needed for internal party purposes. The next general election cannot come soon enough.
Britain’s Express newspaper is reporting today that Sunak’s popularity in polls has “plummeted to a record low.” Reading between the lines, these impending policy changes look like a desperate and fruitless attempt to suck up to voters after Sunak’s party has mismanaged pretty much everything since the pandemic and made life a lot harder for everyone. (If you think I’m being biased, ask any Brit – even those that vote Conservative.)
So, in an attempt to gain political favor, Sunak, who is expected to hail the UK as a world leader in net zero in his speech (yes, for real), is going to throw away the very policies that made it a world leader. Expect to see a lot of turbulence this week, as many in his own party are already rebelling against this disastrous plan.
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