RISHI SUNAK’s premiership has been worse for the environment than his predecessors, the outgoing head of the government’s climate watchdog has said.
Chris Stark said the Prime Minister’s decision to water down environmental policies has set Britain back on reaching net zero climate-wrecking carbon emissions and that he has not made the target as much of a priority as some of his predecessors.
He told the BBC that other countries now regard Britain as less ambitious on climate and that it would be extremely difficult to recover its international reputation on climate action.
On Mr Sunak’s speech last year delaying and scrapping policies meant to cut carbon emissions, he said: “In the speech itself, he talked about the need to reappraise lots of the steps that take us to net zero.
“My honest answer to that is: I think it set us back.”
Mr Stark, who is due to step down as chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, which provides the government with advice on hitting emissions targets, at the end of this month, also said Labour should be more bold on climate change, with leader Sir Keir Starmer talking about the subject more.
“You look out your window and you see we’ve had, you know, the wettest 18 months ever in this country, we’ve got the hottest year on record in the last 12 months,” he added.
“I think people around the world know climate change is happening, but there is definitely a fear of talking about it in British politics at the moment.”
The government remains formally committed to reaching net zero by 2050 but has delayed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles and weakened targets on home insulation and phasing out gas boilers.
In his October speech Mr Sunak said the changes were a more “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero” that reduced the burden on the public.
A government spokesperson said it needs “to reach our net zero goals in a sustainable way.”
Mr Stark also said the Scottish government’s decision to remove some of its own climate change targets last week provided a salutary lesson.
He said: “Political ambition is exactly what we need in climate change, but that was a bridge too far.”
As well as setting an overall target for reaching net zero by 2045 — the Scottish government had aimed to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.
