Rishi Sunak’s decision to push back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035 has been slammed by a London business chief who says it “makes the UK look flaky and unreliable”.
The Prime Minister sparked fierce criticism from MPs, environmentalists and industry leaders as he announced the watering-down of a raft of green policies.
Mr Sunak set out his “new approach” to reaching net zero by 2050 in a speech from Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon.
He said he was acting to avoid a public “backlash” by watering down efforts to tackle the climate crisis, given the costs faced by millions of households up and down the country.
Mr Sunak insisted he was standing by the legally binding goal of hitting net zero by 2050 despite making changes including:
* Delaying the ban on new cars and vans running solely on petrol and diesel from 2030 to 2035
* Weakening the plan to phase out gas boilers from 2035 so households that will struggle the most to switch to heat pumps will not have to make the switch
* Putting back the ban on boilers relying on heating oil in off-grid homes from 2026 to 2035
* Scrapping policies to force landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said: “The risk here to those of us who care about reaching net zero, as I do, is simple: if we continue down this path we risk losing the consent of the British people,” he said.
“And the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies but against the wider mission itself meaning we might never achieve our goal.
“That’s why we have to do things differently.”
Asked whether his climate shift was a political move ahead of the next election, Mr Sunak said: “No, this is not actually about politics....This is about doing what’s right for the country in the long term.”
He detailed the plans to the public after putting them to Cabinet ministers in a hastily-arranged call in response to a leak of his net-zero plans.
But his announcement sparked criticism from MPs, including many Tories, as well as environmentalists and business figures.
Richard Burge, chief executive at London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said backtracking on the petrol and diesel car ban makes the UK look “flaky, unreliable, and incapable of leading the green energy revolution”.
He said: “Prime Minister Sunak promised London and its businesses a vision of the UK being a net zero world leader by 2050.
“London businesses therefore, decided to go the extra mile by starting to invest in electric vehicle transition.
“In addition, Sir Alok Sharma MP, who represented this Government at the climate change summit in Glasgow, highlighted last week to the City of London Chamber of Commerce that being a policy-world leader means that London could be a business-world leader.
“However, the Government’s decision to suddenly back track and delay the ban on petrol and diesel cars makes us look flaky, unreliable, and incapable of leading the green energy revolution.
“The real world achieves success by sticking to workable plans.
“We can’t be a pendulum on issues that deter the confidence of our businesses who are key stakeholders on green energy issues.”
The National Housing Federation said scrapping targets could lead to people facing higher bills “for years to come”.
Chief executive Kate Henderson said: “England’s homes are among the oldest and draughtiest in Europe. Making homes more energy efficient is a win-win, not only helping to save our planet, but also boosting our economy by creating jobs and, crucially, saving money.
“Our research found that retrofitting homes would save social housing residents on average 40% on heating bills. Scrapping targets on this could lead to people facing higher bills for years to come.
Labour shadow environment secretary Steve Reed predicted that Mr Sunak’s announcement on weakening environmental pledges would “blow up in his face”.
“What the Prime Minister just announced today was selling out the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and that is for Britain to lead the world in the transition to a new green economy,” Mr Reed told Sky News.
“And in doing that, he is undermining business confidence and deterring the business investment that will fund the well-paid jobs of the future that we could have had.”
Mr Reed said transition to a net zero economy would “lower household bills”, something he said Mr Sunak’s new plan would fail to achieve.
The shadow cabinet minister said Labour would keep the 2030 ban on selling new diesel and petrol cars, rather than delaying it by five years as announced by the Conservative leader, saying: “That is what businesses have been investing for, that is what businesses expect, that is how we can meet net zero, but it is also how we can lower the fuel costs for households that have cars.”
Mr Reed added: “He is prioritising what he wrongly sees as narrow party political advantage for the Conservative Party but it will blow up in his face.”
Boris Johnson had earlier warned Mr Sunak not to “falter” on key climate crisis initiatives, arguing that heaping uncertainty on businesses could drive up prices for British families.
The former prime minister told the Conservative leader that he cannot afford to “lose our ambition for this country”.
In a statement, Mr Johnson said that businesses “must have certainty about our net zero commitments”.
“We cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country,” he added.
Among a raft of measures, Mr Sunak said more financial support would be provided to help households to switch to heat pumps.
“I’m announcing today that the boiler upgrade scheme, which gives people cash grants to replace their boiler, will be increased by 50% to £7,500,” he said.
“There are no strings attached, the money will never need to be repaid and this is one of the most generous schemes of its kind in Europe.”
He listed a range of planned environmental measures that he said he was scrapping.
The Prime Minister said the debate about achieving net zero had “thrown up a range of worrying proposals”.
He said: “Today I want to confirm that under this Government they will never happen.
“The proposals for Government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car, I’ve scrapped it.
“The proposal to make you change your diet and harm British farmers by taxing meat or to create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday, I’ve scrapped those too.
“Nor will we ban new oil and gas in the North Sea, which would simply leave us reliant on expensive, imported energy from foreign dictators like Putin.
“We will never impose these unnecessary and heavy-handed measures on you, the British people, but we will still meet our international commitments and hit net zero by 2050.”
The Prime Minister was asked whether he believed his plans to dilute key efforts to tackle the climate crisis would convince his children.
He has previously described his young daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, as the “experts” in his household on climate change.
“I think it is absolutely wrong to describe in any way, shape or form what I’m doing today as ‘watering down our targets’,” he said in response to a question describing it as such after his speech.
“If someone thinks that what we’re doing is somehow not sufficient, not ambitious enough, I don’t know what they’d say to pretty much every other country in the world, because we are way out ahead already and continuing to maintain that leadership.
“So I’m very confident that what we’re doing is right, because not only do we have world-leading targets, we’re actually just doing it in a better way that will bring the country along with us and save families thousands of pounds, and there’s nothing ‘watering down’ about that.
“But that’s why I have no problem whatsoever defending it, not just to my daughters.”
