Jack Mintz: U.K. shifting to 'pragmatic' environment policies — Canada should, too via fpcomment
Though still holding firm to the 2050 objective, Sunak took steps this past week to dismantle several of Johnson’s policies. Climate policies are widely supported, it seems, until the invoice arrives. In a recent, 55 per cent of Britons said they were opposed to carbon policies if they resulted in ordinary people facing additional costs. . Of those who voted Conservative in 2019, 74 per cent were opposed to carbon policies either altogether or if they involved higher costs.
Just a week after the byelection, Sunak announced the government will issue 100 new licences to develop new oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Given that oil and gas will still be needed for decades to come, he argues it is better for Britain to produce it at home than to import it from distant and sometimes not so friendly countries.
Oil and gas leases are not the only green policies that have been revisited. Forty Conservative MPs have challenged the government’s ban on new gas and diesel cars after 2030, asking whether it is practicable. Don’t be surprised if a more pragmatic approach isn’t soon in the offing for the Johnson government’s ban on new natural gas boilers by 2025, along with a program to replace 600,000 of them at a grant cost of £5,000 per boiler.
Even the U.K. Emission Trading System is being softened, with free allowances given to large emitters to meet required emission reductions. On Aug. 2, the ETS price fell from £47 to £40.60 in just the one day, resulting in the U.K.’s carbon price falling to 55 per cent of the EU price. The lower ETS price does help U.K. businesses to be competitive and makes lower consumer prices possible, but the government fears the EU will impose a border tariff on U.K.
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