How much more climate damage can Tory government do?

A significant part of the recent dramatic decline in the UK economy was caused by Conservative governments : Brexit cost the UK economy around £140 billion [1] and this was enhanced by the dramatic rise in inflation caused by the brief but catastrophic Liz Truss premiership. The result has been that less money is available to spend on fighting climate change. And the failure to take the necessary action was continued by Truss’ successor.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has failed to announce a replacement for Lord Deben as Chair of the Climate Change Committee who stepped down in June 2023. In his final letter to Sunak [2], Deben’s final assessment of UK progress in reducing emissions highlighted:

The failure to act decisively in response to the energy crisis and build on the success of hosting COP26 means that the UK has lost its clear global climate leadership.
Inaction has been compounded by continuing support for further unnecessary investment in fossil fuels.
The Government must act urgently to correct the failures of the past year and reclaim the UK’s clear climate leadership role.

But instead of appointing a chair and taking positive action to fight climate change, on 20 September Sunak announced [3] that

we’re going to ease the transition to electric vehicles. You’ll still be able to buy petrol and diesel cars and vans until 2035
we will give people far more time to make the necessary transition to heat pumps
[we will scrap] the Great British Insulation Scheme
[we will not ban] new oil and gas in the North Sea

In response, Esin Serin, Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment wrote [4]

The Independent Review of Net Zero gave the Government a firm warning against a stop-start approach to net zero policy, voicing industry concerns that sudden policy changes “reduce investor and developer confidence, increasing the cost of capital and overall cost of decarbonisation.”

Moving the phase-out date for the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles (deemed “immovable” just a few months ago) is exactly the kind of policy uncertainty that puts business investment at risk and undermines the UK’s ability to capture opportunities of green industry. Some car manufacturers themselves were among the first to voice their anger when rumours leaked that the Prime Minister was looking to relax the phase-out date.

A recent analysis estimated that delayed action on deploying renewables, insulation, rooftop solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicles added up to £2,150 to UK household bills in 2022.

Even before yesterday’s weakening of various net zero policies, there were serious concerns about the UK’s ability to deliver on its 2050 target. With the costs of inaction vastly outweighing the price of action, any divergence from its pathway to net zero would be an economic as much as an environmental failure for the UK.

But Sunak had in mind even more gifts for drivers. Nine days later the government announced a new long-term plan to back drivers [5] which will:

support drivers and put the brakes on anti-car measures
address drivers’ everyday concerns with new measures to keep traffic moving, make parking simpler, and clamp down on overrunning road works
offer to review guidance on 20mph limits and low traffic neighbourhoods in England to ensure local support, ending blanket imposition of anti-driver policies
support the majority who drive, by keeping motoring costs under control and ensure people have the freedom to drive as they need to in their daily lives

So to hell with the minority who care about the climate and walk or cycle.

In October 2023 the Guardian reported [6] that housebuilders have saved billions from a range of measures introduced by the Tories since 2015 including:

Refusing to require new homes to be built with heat pumps instead of gas boilers, resulting in most new homes being connected to the gas grid.
Refusing to mandate that new homes are built with solar panels.
Delaying tougher building regulations on insulation.
Delaying a “future homes standard” to ensure new homes are net zero carbon.
Continuing to back hydrogen for home heating, after experts warned it would be expensive and impractical.
Attempting to scrap nutrient regulations that would force housebuilders to clean up watercourses.

As a general election approaches, no doubt the tories will continue to fail to take the urgent action required to fight climate change, instead spending any cash they can find to ease the financial problems of those who they think might vote for them. Luckily the polls predict [7] that Labour will win by a significant majority. Hopefully they will begin to take the hard decisions necessary today in order to prevent disastrous climate change tomorrow.