24th September 2023
Rishi Sunak – pale green policies for a dimmer future
Tory efforts to capture the headlines with popular policies took a further nosedive this week when Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, reneged on the previous policy of halting the production of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and pushed the date back to 2035. Sunak’s justification was characteristic of the Tories when they attempt to present themselves as being on the side of the working class; disingenuous and mendacious.
Sunak claims that he does not want to pass additional costs onto hard pressed families, already having to deal with a cost of living crisis and struggling to meet increased energy bills. Sunak conveniently sidesteps the fact that his rise to the dizzy heights of 10, Downing St has come during a period of 13 years of Tory led austerity, which has squeezed the working class, the services many of them rely on and the wages they earn. Britain’s ruling class may boast of an increase in billionaires but for the working class it has been a period of seeing more people homeless and sleeping rough.
Sunak’s army of Public Relations advisors are desperate to present their man as a nice guy in a sharp suit, who only has the people’s interests at heart. His own very comfortable millionaire status is airbrushed, as being of little or no consequence, and not a barrier to him understanding the needs of working class people.
Having to sell the third Prime Minister in less than the lifetime of a Parliament, to a population watching corporate profits rise along with prices at the till, will undoubtedly take some creative PR thinking. Quite which bright spark pitched back pedalling on the green agenda as an idea may only be revealed in Sunak’s memoirs. However, if the Tory ship was not holed below the waterline before this week, it has been listing significantly since Sunak’s speech.
As well as pushing back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035 Sunak’s announcement also ditches the plan to phase out gas boilers from 2035. Even the government’s own Climate Change Commission said that the announcement, ”is likely to take the UK further away from being able to meet its legal commitments”, which are to achieve net zero by 2050.
The British government commitments to date have been key elements of the British submissions under the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Alok Sharma, Chair of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, has criticised Sunak’s u-turn stating,
“rolling back on certain policies will mean we need to find emissions reductions elsewhere if we are to meet our legally binding near-term carbon budgets and our internationally committed 2030 emissions reductions targets.”
Sunak has not indicated how emission reductions will be met by other means and is characteristically more concerned with saving his job in the next twelve months, rather than any contribution towards saving the planet.
Shadow Energy Secretary for Labour, Ed Miliband, said in response to Sunak’s announcement that Labour would stick with the 2030 phase-out for petrol and diesel cars but that the party would look at the other ones. He suggested the boiler targets could be revisited by Labour but wanted to stick to the previous plan on energy efficiency.
The fear of being accused of putting people’s bills up means that Labour are pussyfooting around the issues rather than coming up with a comprehensive plan to support the transition to greener travel and energy. Such an approach is in danger of playing into Sunak’s hands as he seeks to weaponise climate issues ahead of a General Election next year.
A bold plan to meet the cost of heat pumps from a windfall tax on oil companies or have a more generous scheme for scrappage and replacement of non-electric vehicles would be a starting point. Tackling the issues head on may also help to generate greater understanding of the risks of inaction.
Across Europe only 2% of people live in areas deemed safe by the World Health Organisation, measured by the presence of tiny particles (known as PM2.5s) that cause significant diseases. This applies equally to rural areas as well as urban centres, with a major source of dangerous particles coming from ammonia from farms. Farm ammonia contributes 25% of these particles in London, 32% in Birmingham and 38% in Leicester.
The farming and food lobby, like those of oil and fossils fuels, has significant sway with politicians so these realities and swept under the carpet, while the Tory press focus on the impact of Ultra Low Emission Zones on the few individuals who may feel a negative financial impact.
Such divide and rule tactics are fundamental to capitalism, the drive to prioritise profit over the needs of the people, to allow the dictates of the market to rule over a socialist planned approach to issues of the environment.
Sunak’s pale green choices now will not win him a General Election but there is every chance that they will cow the Labour Party into shying away from any pronouncements deemed to be too radical. The need for extra parliamentary action over issues of the environment and the future of the planet has never been greater.
A clear programme which puts people before profit and articulates the political need to change the pollution driven capitalist system is vital. The next General Election in Britain may be the short term focal point but the impact of choices made now have repercussions far beyond that.
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