Rishi Sunak considering weakening key green policies

Submitted ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Arrakis@feddit.uk⁩ to ⁨unitedkingdom@feddit.uk⁩

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66857551

Rishi Sunak is considering weakening some of the government’s key green commitments in a major policy shift.

It could include delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars and phasing out gas boilers, multiple sources have told the BBC.

The PM is preparing to set out the changes in a speech in the coming days.

There is no suggestion that Mr Sunak is considering abandoning the legal commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But he is expected to declare that other countries need to bear more of the burden of dealing with climate change.

source

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glorious_albus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What’s the reason behind this? Most obvious reason looks like lobbying money, but is there anything other than that?

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- Spendrill@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It all ends up at the answer @MapTheft gave you but to understand what’s happening here in a bit more detail:
  
  The Conservatives are very unpopular and are going to lose the next election. They know this and so they’re looking to improve their position so a) they don’t lose as badly as they might otherwise and b) be in a position to capitalise on the next Labour governments unpopularity.
  
  Obviously they aren’t going to do this by stopping from acting like cunts so their options are somewhat limited.
  
  Recently they won a bye-election that everyone thought they’d lose and it is generally thought that what swung it in their favour was opposition to ULEZ, a clean air initiative which disproportionately affects poor drivers. It’s probably a necessary measure to protect the health of Londoners but the way it is implemented means that people will be out of pocket.
  
  The Tories, casting around for easy answers have decided that the public don’t like ‘green’ measures. So if they drag their feet on these proposed changes, their rich mates in the oil sector will like them and shower them with money come election time and beyond and they think that when Labour inevitably have to bring the measures back they will be unpopular and this will give the Tories a chance to make ground the election after next.
  
  Fuck the science, fuck the environment, fuck the poor, fuck international scientific consensus and fuck any kind of global progress, it’s all about electoral calculus by a bunch of morally corrupt shitcunts.
  
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  - glorious_albus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thanks for the nuanced answer. It sucks how any progress is halted around the world because everything revolves around winning elections.
    
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  - Nighed@sffa.community ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    …I wish politicians would do what they believe is best for the country/world instead of their party… dammit
    
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- MapTheft@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Because ultimately, he is a cunt.
  
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- drekly@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Since when did the conservative government need any more justification other than “it makes us rich”
  
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- thehatfox@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  A leadership devoid of ideas and desperately throwing anything at the wall in the hope it sticks.
  
  Before today this was one of the latest talking points from Liz Truss, who Sunak has not long replaced. Doesn’t seem a great look to be picking up policy from the still seething rival that you claim to have saved us from.
  
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- Hogger85b@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Voter's in Uxbridge didn't like the ulez and wanted to keep driving cars despite having 3 tube lines, two mainline rail and busses measured in minutes....this is on the voters and the man who should be in the Clapham omnibus....but is solo in his Clapham SUV.
  
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Oneeightnine@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The conservative party do a bloody awful job of conserving things don’t they.

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HipPriest@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I'm actually quite pleased with this because it seemed like Starmer was weakening on environmental issues, especially after the whole Ulez business. Hopefully if the PM is getting flak for diluting his policies on it Starmer will stick to his guns for once

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- peter@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You know the media and therefore the general public will conviniently ignore that though and continue with this narrative that starmer makes labour a worse choice than the tories
  
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  - echodot@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Labour could come out with a policy where they eat babies and they would still be a better choice than the Tories.
    
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hellweaver666@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What an absolute twunt.

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Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Seeing another BBC article on it, the following caught my eye.

But a drivers campaign group said it was “delighted” by a potential delay.

Fair Fuel UK said the costs of policy would outweigh the benefits and it was “always doomed to be dropped”.

I wonder who Fair Fuel UK are? Sounds like a good honest grassroots drivers group worried about what’s going to happen to petrol!

Oh, it’s run by somebody called Howard Cox. I wonder who he is…

Oh, he’s a Reform UK swivel eyed loon.

What is it with the BBC and going to mentalist Kipper types for their opinions?

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- Arrakis@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mean…with an opinion as fucking stupid as that, it’s no wonder he’s the only one the Beeb could find to support it.
  
  I hope anyway…
  
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HeartyBeast@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This makes me unreasonably annoyed. If Labour follows anywhere near this path I'm voting Green

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- hellothere@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Keep in mind that every tonne of carbon not emitted is better than one emitted, and even Labour’s less than desirable policies are better than the Tories. While right now it will still be too much to stay under 1.5, we will emit less with a Labour government. That is why priority 1 has to be to get the Tories out.
  
  If you can vote green and the tory won’t win the seat, absolutely go for it, the stronger the message that is sent the better. But if you can’t, vote for whoever is best placed to get/keep the tory out.
  
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jabjoe@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Don’t think EV bit changes much, the market is going to kill ICE anyway.

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- thehatfox@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The transition won’t happen quickly enough without it, and there still needs to be some hard incentives to get infrastructure like charging networks up.
  
  Delaying or stopping the ban will cost more time we can ill afford.
  
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  - jabjoe@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I don’t think the future ICE ban is what is driving EV sales. It’s that they are cheap to run and have good performance. And that green feeling. The upfront cost is going down and the range is going up.
    
    The infrastructure is going up fairly fast. Not sure it can go up much faster because of the grid having to change to. Ideally though, you charge at home anyway. I charge away from home only like 5% of the time.
    
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autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:

It could include delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars and phasing out gas boilers, multiple sources have told the BBC.

According to multiple sources briefed on Downing Street’s thinking, Mr Sunak would use the speech to hail the UK as a world leader on net zero.

Some specifics of the speech are still thought to be under discussion, but as it stands it could include as many as seven core policy changes or commitments, documents seen by the BBC suggest.

First, the government would push the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars - currently set to come into force in 2030 - back to 2035.

In addition, Britons will be told that there will be no new taxes to discourage flying; no government policies to change people’s diets; and no measures to encourage carpooling.

The event convenes specialists in climate finance, and aims to help developing economies make adjustments to cut emissions.

The original article contains 476 words, the summary contains 162 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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- Arrakis@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  To TL;DR the TL;DR: we did the bare minimum, so now it’s not our problem!
  
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