Declaring that "If we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced changes to slow down Britain's drive to Net Zero emissions.
Britain has finally joined the net sensibles | The Telegraph | Matthew Lynn:
September 20, 2023 - "You might still be able to buy a petrol car for a few more years. You won’t have to rip out your old boiler right away.... [E]xtra taxes on your next summer holiday might be postponed, while that fiddly recycling scheme that required countless different bins could be scrapped. No doubt his critics will try to portray the Prime Minister’s modest watering down of green commitments as turning the UK into a climate-change denying pariah. In reality, the UK is just switching from 'net zero' extremism to 'net zero' sense, joining many other developed countries in recognising that carbon emissions can’t be eliminated right away and all we will do is bankrupt ourselves by trying....
"To listen to some of the reaction to the PM’s leaked announcement on climate change you might think he was sending the British army into the rainforest with chainsaws or re-opening the Kent and Durham coalmines.... Sunak is simply proposing some modest tweaks. The completely unrealistic target of banning the sale of petrol cars by 2030 will be pushed back by five years, bringing us into line with most of Europe. The phasing out of gas boilers will be postponed. And there will be no new taxes on flying, at least for now. The posturing that demanded the UK was the world leader on combating climate change, even though we account for only one percent of global emissions, and our stagnant economy can barely afford it, will be scrapped. Instead, we will more modestly adopt global standards.
"That is long overdue. The 'net sensibles', as they might be termed, are in the ascendancy across Europe. France’s President Macon had called for a 'regulatory pause' on climate change, arguing that it should not damage competitiveness. Italy’s PM Georgia Meloni argued in March that 'we cannot help the environment by destroying our industries' while Belgium’s PM Alexander de Croo in May argued climate change legislation should not overwhelm companies, arguing that Europe should 'not try to do everything at the same time'.
"In a move that you might think would please the kind of hardcore Remainers who also are typically the most extreme advocates of green policies, the UK is simply aligning itself with the EU. It is hard to see anything very controversial about that. The alternative was to simply press on with an insane bid for world leadership, while making life tougher and tougher for families and businesses....
"[T]here is still a long way to go. For example, we could start fracking so that we could secure our domestic energy supplies while we transition to green alternatives, following the lead of Canada’s Justin Trudeau, hardly a right-wing populist. We could allow new oil fields to be developed at the same time as developing wind and solar power, following the lead of President Joe Biden, hardly a climate-change denier. Or we could explore the use of synthetic e-fuels as an alternative to electric cars, as the Social Democrat-Green coalition in Germany is insisting that it should....
"[U]nder Theresa May and Boris Johnson, cheered on by the likes of Labour’s Ed Miliband and Sir Keir Starmer, the UK had one of the most extreme climate change plans in the world. It was already starting to drag down the country’s economy, with expensive, unreliable energy, costly regulations, and endless green levies. It should be a relief to everyone that we have already joined the ranks of the 'net sensibles' recognising that climate change is a serious issue but that we can’t make much of a difference by ourselves, and there is no point in bankrupting ourselves in the process. But there is still a long way to go before we finally undo the damage of the last few years - and put in place some grown up climate policies instead."
Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/20/britain-has-finally-seen-sense-on-net-zero/
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Net Zero Speech - IN FULL | 10 Downing Street | September 21, 2023:
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