British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to weaken his country’s climate goals across the board. The conservative politician confirmed this on Wednesday during a speech in London. The course taken so far imposes “unacceptably high costs” on people in Great Britain. Sunak emphasized that he wanted to continue to stick to the long-term goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. He added: “But we can do all of this in a fairer, better way.”
As previously reported, according to Sunak, the phase-out of vehicles with combustion engines should be postponed from 2030 to 2035. He assumes that most new cars will be electric by the end of the decade anyway, but the government should not impose this on consumers. The new installation of gas heating should also remain longer than previously permitted, said Sunak. There should be no deadline for converting existing heating systems to heat pumps. “I will never force anyone to rip out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump,” Sunak said.
Sunak’s surprising move shortly before the party conference season, which the BBC had already reported on in advance, provoked some angry reactions – including in Sunak’s Conservative party. Car manufacturer Ford accused Sunak of disregarding the needs of the industry. “Our industry needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency,” the company said in a statement. Easing the ban on combustion engines would undermine all three, it said. Former Prime Minister and Sunak’s party colleague Boris Johnson criticized that companies should have certainty about the country’s climate neutrality goals. “We cannot afford to give in now,” Johnson said, according to the statement. Sunak denied the move was primarily a response to poor poll numbers for his party, which is expected to face a general election next year.