Analysis: Sunak's Delay of UK Climate Goals Puts Him at the Head of a Coming Trend

In case you missed it, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a series of changes he plans to invoke in the UK’s net-zero by 2050 goals. All of the changes were designed to delay timelines for some of the most ridiculous plans previously laid by the supposedly “conservative” ruling government.

Importantly, Sunak justifies his relaxation of these draconian and unattainable goals by pointing out his government runs the risk of losing the public’s buy-in if it were to simply plow ahead and try to force the changes on the current timelines.

[Note: A reader based in the UK has this to say on the point above: “Hi David: Another great piece, though Mr. Sunak omitted one very critical piece, he said they (Government) risk losing the consent of the people..... the people have never consented to this stupid, communist idealism in the first place. The only zero they have achieved is netzero support.”

Very solid point.] 

Writing in the Telegraph, Alistair Heath characterized the need for these adjustments clearly:

Yet by any rational standard, Sunak is merely being pragmatic and realistic: banning pure petrol cars in six and a bit years’ time is a dangerously utopian policy that would guarantee chaos, mass impoverishment, power cuts and a popular revolution. The same holds true for the other policies Sunak is delaying, including the ban on new oil and gas boilers. They are all examples of what the philosopher Rob Henderson calls “luxury beliefs”, ideas performatively adopted by hypocritical jet-setting elites to highlight their high social status, even though they inflict immense costs on those who can’t afford expensive electric cars or spare thousands to replace a boiler with technology that is not yet ready.

As recently as 2017, the original target for the ban on petrol cars was set at 2040. Sticking to the current 2030 deadline, a random date dreamt up by Boris Johnson because it sounded “better”, would represent the final triumph of dogma over reason. Our charging infrastructure won’t be ready, we won’t produce enough electricity and there won’t be enough truly cheap, long range all-electric models available, new or second-hand, to allow those with budgets of just a few thousand pounds to replace their vehicles. Prohibiting new combustion engines from 2035 onwards, as Sunak now wants to do, remains pretty extreme, but it’s at least a policy that stands a chance of being workable. 

[End]

The point is well-made and clear: These deadline delays at least present some possibility of achieving the goals, though most will almost certainly need to be delayed again down the road, if not abandoned entirely.