Rishi Sunak clashed with UN secretary general António Guterres’ stance on global warming on Wednesday as he sought to defend his deeply controversial decision to back hundreds of new oil and gas licences in seas around Britain.
The PM took a swipe at “eco zealots” as he tried to make his case in the face of a wave of criticism, including from the senior Tory MP who carried out the Government’s own net zero review.
He was grilled on LBC Radio on whether his Government was one of the “dangerous radicals”, slammed previously by Mr Guterres, that are “increasing the production of fossil fuels”.
Despite the raft of new oil and gas licences, Mr Sunak said that Britain was reducing its reliance on fossil fuels “over time” and had led the G7 — the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan — in decarbonising fastest.
He added: “I will say that to the Secretary General, and everyone else, where is the largest offshore windfarm in the world: here in the UK, where is the second largest: in the UK, third largest, fourth largest: in the UK. We should not take any lectures from anybody about our record, our record is fantastic, it’s better than everyone (G7) else’s.”
However, just weeks ago Britain’s climate change watchdog accused the Government of torpedoing its lead on tackling global warming. The Climate Change Committee stressed Britain’s leadership position on addressing global warming had been “very substantially challenged” by Government chaos and actions over the last year or so.
Mr Sunak, though, said that he “100 per cent believed that what I’m doing is right” with boosting domestic energy supply so the UK was not so reliant on foreign imports, with their shipping emissions, and as it created jobs and taxes for public services.
However Tory MP Chris Skidmore, who carried out a net zero review for the Government, has warned Mr Sunak that he is on the “wrong side of history”, with the oil and gas licences being “the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time, when the rest of the world is experiencing record heat waves”.
Shadow climate and net zero secretary Ed Miliband branded Mr Sunak’s position as “weak and confused”, warning it would “drive a coach and horses through our climate commitments”. Lib Dem climate change spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse accused the Government of “shambolic failure” on global warming.
Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones also criticised the PM, saying: “He is destroying any reputation that we might have left as a world leader on climate change.
“That is very bad for Britain and very bad for the world.”
