Media reports this morning are predicting that the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on the verge of diluting a series of measures designed to combat global warming.
Among the measures being proposed the reports say that plans to ban new gas and oil boilers, as well as new diesel and petrol cars, will be diluted and pushed back five years.
The move comes as Opposition to the net zero agenda has been brewing for a while, with sceptical Tory MPs coalescing together in groups such as the Net Zero Scrutiny Group.
The party also saw the result of the Uxbridge By election when voters appeared to react against the London Mayor’s plans to impose a clean air charge on the capital’s outer regions
Reaction has been mixed. The Tory MP Chris Skidmore has said this is “potentially the greatest mistake of Sunak’s Premiership so far”
The Tory peer ZacGoldsmith, who quit as environment minister in June, describes Sunak’s net zero decision as “a moment of shame” for UK.
The Motor Manufacturers Group SMMT UK motor accuses Sunak of sowing “confusion and uncertainty” over net zero and the 2030 petrol car sales deadline.
However Leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, says the Prime Minister is ‘finally’ showing some common sense delaying the ban on petrol cars and gas boilers and the Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said:
‘We’re not going to save planet by bankrupting British people!’
The plans being considered will include moving the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales to 2035 and the phasing out 80 percent of new gas boilers (not all of them) by 2035
Also being touted is delaying the 2026 ban on off-grid oil boilers to 2035, no new energy efficiency rules for landlords or homeowners, no new taxes to discourage flying as well as no new policies to encourage carpooling and long-delayed “seven bin” recycling schemes ruled out.
