Sunak to Delay U.K. Climate Goals to Avoid ‘Bankrupting’ Britons

In a speech from 10 Downing Street, standing at a lectern labeled “Long-term decisions for a brighter future,” Sunak said past British plans to cut carbon emissions were about “grabbing headlines” but were poorly thought out and never properly debated.

Sunak emphasized that to get people to trade in their old cars and buy new electric vehicles — and to swap out their old gas water heaters for new heat pumps — the public must be convinced that this is the right and affordable thing to do. He said Britons were dubious and might not be ready to bear such costs.

“At least for now, it should be you the consumer that makes that choice — not the government forcing you to do it,” he said about vehicles and home heating.

He denied making the changes to boost his election chances next year.

The prime minister said his government was still committed to reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050 but in a “more pragmatic, more proportionate, more realistic way.”

That would mean less immediate economic pain for Brits, who have been facing a cost-of-living crisis and high energy bills. But Sunak did not detail the costs to the planet for such delay. Nor did he expound upon the benefits of better-insulated homes and battery-powered cars.

Sunak’s critics, including members of his own party, said he was delaying inevitable sacrifices while missing a critical window to contain carbon emissions. Without immediate cuts, scientists say, the world will pass a warming threshold that will lead to even more catastrophic flooding, heat waves, wildfires and melting at the poles.

Climate activists in London on Wednesday. (Susannah Ireland/Reuters)

Sunak’s announcement came as a surprise to many — on a day King Charles III was making his first state visit to France, where he was pushing for climate finance and biodiversity, and while Climate Minister Graham Stuart was in New York, attending a U.N. Climate Ambition Summit.

Opponents of the Sunak rollback say his decision threatens to undermine Britain’s leadership on the environment, which reached a high point in 2021, when Britain hosted the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and 200 world leaders struck a deal to propel the world toward more urgent climate action.

With his rollback, Sunak undercuts his own party’s climate pledges, upheld by the past three Conservative prime ministers: Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Johnson directly criticized the idea of delay.

“We cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country,” he said, adding that it is crucial to show business that the government is still committed to net zero so they “can see the way forward” to develop green solutions.

Britain’s automakers came out against delaying the target date for phasing out gas and diesel vehicles, saying they were making billion-dollar investments in new plants to produce batteries and electric cars.

A cyclist rides along with early morning auto traffic on Wednesday in London. (Andy Rain/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Britain and the European Union have pledged to go net zero by 2050, with steep cuts by 2030. But across Europe — where this summer has brought brutal heat waves and raging fires in the Mediterranean region — a backlash is simmering against some of the world’s most ambitious green targets.

European leaders have begun to consider the political price of eliminating fossil fuels. Some worry that voters care about protecting the planet from climate change — but don’t want to pay for it.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, doing the rounds of the morning news programs, applauded Sunak’s decision, calling it a pragmatic move in the face of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis here, where inflation remains stubbornly high.

“We’re not going to save the country by bankrupting the British people,” she told the BBC.

Among its Conservative Party members, the British Parliament is divided between “green Tories” who want to move decisively on climate and those who say there is too much gloom and doom and hype over climate, and that a slower approach is best. Some have even argued that a warmer Britain could be a good thing.

Sunak and the Conservatives face a general election next year, and current polling suggests they will lose to the opposition Labour Party.

But they may think they can improve their chances by delaying climate actions that affect people’s personal lives and pocket books.

Oxfam’s Sunak “big head” outside Parliament on Tuesday. (Kin Cheung/AP)

In a special election for Johnson’s old parliamentary seat in the London suburb of Uxbridge, voters signaled that they were opposed not to net zero but to London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to extend the Ultra Low Emission Zone from the city center to the suburbs, where older, more polluting vehicles would pay surcharges to operate.

Sunak on Wednesday denied that his announcement was an election play, saying that he had been considering it before becoming prime minister. And he challenged his critics to explain why they are willing to impose unnecessary costs on families.

It is one thing for energy companies to move more quickly to build offshore wind farms. It is another to ask voters to replace their gas water heaters or trade in their gasoline cars for an electric vehicle instead.

For their part, leaders of the Labour Party said Wednesday that if elected they would reverse Sunak’s delay and return the ban of gasoline and diesel cars to 2030.

British automakers on Wednesday bombarded 10 Downing Street with warnings that moving from a 2030 to 2035 ban would risk jobs and investment in Britain, as the industry pivots to produce electric vehicles for the growing market.

Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, said delaying the 2030 ban on sales of new gasoline and diesel cars would undermine the steps automakers are taking now.

“Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three,” she said.