The Observer view on Rishi Sunak’s net zero backtrack: a cynical ploy that won’t play with voters | Observer editorial
David Cameron went into No 10 promising to lead the greenest government ever" a few years after visiting the melting Arctic ice cap and posing with huskies. It was supposed to indicate the start of a new relationship between the Conservatives and the environment. He and his successors may have a chequered record on the substance of green policy, but they at least had an unwavering commitment to the headline political commitment. It was during Theresa May's premiership that the government passed legislation to bind the UK to a net zero emissions target by 2050 and under Boris Johnson's tenure that the UK assumed the presidency of Cop26.
Rishi Sunak now appears willing to trash the political consensus in favour of net zero in order to make a desperate pitch for votes ahead of the next election. In a speech last week, he insisted he remained committed to the 2050 legal commitment. But everything else he said indicated he regards the stability and certainty of UK climate policy as fair game in his attempts to try to open a new political dividing line, by framing a false trade-off protecting the environment and boosting growth in the long term, and the cost of living in the here and now.
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