Green leadership is a prize worth having
When Rishi Sunak announced that he was watering down a number of the Government’s environmental targets, the backlash from green groups was rapid – but expected.
It was little surprise that charities and campaigners which exist solely to protect the environment would be angry at any move to roll back those protections.
The Prime Minister was unrepentant: net zero, he argues, cannot be achieved by impoverishing the public. Green policy involves trade-offs, and he claims to be the first leader to acknowledge that properly.
But worryingly for Mr Sunak, it is now not just hardcore environmentalists who are speaking out. Business groups have already been vocal in their opposition to his policy U-turn; now, as i reveals, more than 100 economists have warned that slowing down the race to net zero risks raising the cost of living and hitting business investment.
Downing Street will doubtless dismiss the views of these economists, some of whom are publicly declared Labour supporters. As one Government source put it – how will these academics explain to the general public that they must pay thousands of pounds for the UK to keep tougher targets than almost any other country?
But if they are right, Mr Sunak’s “sensible green leadership” may prove illusory.
There is no doubt that net zero will create a huge clean energy industry, and that industry will surely have its global giants in the same way that the Gulf dominates the oil trade.
Leadership of the green economy could be a remarkable prize for a Britain that has been in a financial funk for more than a decade.
The Prime Minister must be careful not to throw away the opportunity of net zero – no election strategy is worth sacrificing both the economy and the planet.
