Prime Minister Rishi Sunak softened key parts of the UK government’s green agenda, including a ban on petrol car sales, as he set out what he called a “new approach” to tackling climate change.
Sunak said in a speech on Wednesday in London that he would push back by five years to 2035 a plan to bar the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, casting the decision as an effort to protect families struggling with bills. The vast majority of vehicles sold in the UK would likely be electric by 2030 without government intervention, he said.
Sunak is among Western leaders reevaluating climate policies as they face voters exhausted by inflation and a sharp increase in borrowing costs meant to bring prices down. However, advocates of greener policies argue the switch to renewables and more efficient technology cuts costs for consumers in the long run and protects them from sudden energy price shocks.
The prime minister “has chosen to kick the can down the road, rather than pick it up and put it in the recycling bin,” Kate Parminter, Liberal Democrat chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, said in a statement. The move also risks widening Conservative divisions just as the party prepares for its annual conference in Manchester next month. Embracing a green agenda has long been a key Tory policy and helped former Prime Minister Boris Johnson stabilize Britain’s global reputation in the wake of his successful campaign to leave the European Union.