UK’s green halo fades under Sunak leadership

Boris Johnson, a late convert to the green agenda, promised “the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth” in his party’s 2019 election manifesto – just four years later the UK’s position as a global climate leader is slipping.

In the run-up to the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in late 2021, Johnson said tackling climate change was the nation’s “number one international priority”.

But as Britain has endured its hottest June on record and climate change drives extreme weather worldwide, there are deepening concerns, not only from climate experts but from business leaders and even Conservative MPs, about whether Johnson’s successor, Rishi Sunak, is bringing as much passion – if any – to the problem.

In the past week, 15 prominent figures who were involved in Cop26, including former Unilever boss Paul Polman and Kate Hampton, chief executive of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, wrote to Sunak to express their “deep concern for your government’s lackadaisical approach to international climate, nature, and environment issues”.

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In the letter, the signatories including Lord Nicholas Stern and Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the landmark Paris agreement, warned Sunak the UK was losing its place on the global stage when it comes to climate change. The country was at risk of missing vital opportunities both domestically and internationally to both tackle and benefit economically from efforts to halt global warming, they said.

A similar letter sent by 104 British businesses this month, including Tesco, BT and Marks and Spencer, urged Sunak to refocus on the UK’s net-zero goal or risk the country being left behind.

Zac Goldsmith, who quit as international climate minister last month, said the climate issue had plunged down the agenda since Johnson left Downing Street.

Sunak was not in the “net-zero sceptic camp” but Goldsmith pointed out: “He’s just not motivated by these issues, he’s not interested, they don’t move him.”

Critics have cast various decisions as proof of Sunak’s lacklustre approach to climate change: in December a new coal mine in Cumbria received the go-ahead, and regulators are poised to approve a vast new oilfield called Rosebank in the North Sea. Ministers also appear to have sent into the long grass any loosening of the planning system for onshore wind farms.

There has also been a change of tune since Russia invaded Ukraine, with “energy security” often given greater prominence than global warming in ministers’ rhetoric.

Last month, the government’s independent climate advisers said a lack of ministerial initiative meant the country was now making “worryingly slow” progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, after being an early leader.

Shaun Spiers, head of campaign group Green Alliance, said the “evidence of drift and under-delivery is mounting”.

The serious concerns about the UK’s backsliding are reflected in the fresh legal action the British government is now facing over its plans on cutting emissions from a trio of non-profit groups.

Led by ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth, the claim to the high court argues the UK’s net-zero strategy does not go far enough to meet its own legally binding commitments to cut emissions by 68 per cent by 2030 from peak 1990 levels, despite ministers updating their existing proposals just three months ago after a previous court defeat.

Goldsmith’s resignation also put a spotlight on the fact that the government will almost certainly fail to meet a key pledge to provide £11.6 billion (€13.4 billion) to help developing countries deal with climate change – raising questions about the role the country wants to play internationally.

It flies in the face of the UN effort to urge richer countries to provide more “climate finance” to help poorer nations tackle the impact of global warming.

Sophie Rigg, of non-profit group ActionAid, said the likelihood of Sunak reneging on the country’s climate finance commitment showed a “failure to act as a global leader on climate”.

Sunak, while campaigning for the Tory leadership last summer, claimed he shared his young daughters’ concerns about climate change. Yet in his former role as chancellor he saw the issue through the traditional Treasury prism of the public finances.

In June, he skipped a climate and development finance summit hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron and attended by more than 40 world leaders. Instead he was seen at a summer party held by Rupert Murdoch.

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, said the government was still pushing ahead with some key environmental policies such as the roll-out of electric vehicles. But Hall pointed out that Sunak’s oft-quoted five core pre-election pledges did not include climate. “This is a mistake and has raised concern among the public about his commitment,” he said.

Some of Sunak’s allies have been unnerved by a stepping-up of anti-climate rhetoric from pro-Conservative newspapers – for example the Sun accusations of “eco zealotry” aimed at both main political parties.

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That is despite the clear message from the International Energy Agency that the spike in oil prices caused by the Ukraine war is proof, if anything, of the need to create more renewable energy sources.

Meanwhile, the Tories are deliberately trying to undermine the opposition Labour Party by linking it to direct action group Just Stop Oil, for example by pointing out that wind energy entrepreneur Dale Vince has donated to the group as well as to Labour.

Sunak has made the dubious claim that “it does appear that these kind of eco-zealots at Just Stop Oil are writing Keir Starmer’s energy policy” – which is not the case – and Tory chair Greg Hands has called on Labour to return Vince’s donations.

That has prompted unease among some moderate Conservative MPs, who believe that the aggressive attacks on climate protest groups could backfire.

“The problem is that an awful lot of people are worried about the climate and even if some people find Just Stop Oil annoying they don’t like us trying to weaponise green issues, it’s not just young people who care about this stuff,” said one Conservative MP.

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In response to the criticisms, a government spokesperson said the UK was “going far beyond other countries and delivering tangible progress”.

“With a new department dedicated to delivering net zero and energy security, this government is driving economic growth, creating jobs, bringing down energy bills and reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuels.”

But Chris Skidmore, a Tory MP who is the government’s former net-zero tsar, said his party needed to do more to actively defend the climate agenda and its potential to generate new jobs and economic growth.

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“Politics is all about who owns the narrative and who shapes that narrative and ... if you stay silent, somebody else will [shape that narrative],” he said. “Ensuring that we don’t play politics with climate ahead of the next general election is really important.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023