Admittedly, the sensational headline could be ripped of directly from the front page of a British tabloid, but if it got you to open this diary and starting to read then it has served its purpose. And if you only clicked on the link to tell me that Sunak’s first name is “Rishi” and not “Richi” then I would argue that this little change of name is perfectly fitting for the first British Prime Minister, who is richer than the British monarch and probably less embarrassing, than some of his other nicknames, among them “dishy Rishi” or “Sir Softie”.
BTW: who does this remind you of: from a wealthy family, attended the best schools, graduated in economics, quickly made his first own fortune, married the daughter of a billionaire? Sounds exactly like the BBF of Mr. Bone Saw, doesn’t it?
Following the example of Peter Olandt, who recently challenged Kos to publish more front page articles about the the climate crisis and to take up the task to regularly write diaries himself to raise interest and readership about this topic, I will also try to do what I can to increase the number of diaries on the subject. Even though I don't have as large a readership by far as Peter Olandt, Pakalolo or even Meteor Blades, each of them started small. And as they say: Every voice counts.
British PM Rishi Sunak’s decision against attending the UN General Assembly last week and thereby also missing the simultaneously held climate ambition summit, as he was alledgedly to busy with more important stuff, was called a major setback to international climate goals and a “disgusting betrayal of vulnerable people around the world”. The real reason for skipping the meetings was, that if he had gone, he had risked not being allowed to speak at the climate ambition summit, as UN secretary-general António Guterres would only permit countries, who are able to demonstrate their willingness to implement strikt emissions plans.
Sunak’s actions in the past already have caused outrage:
The UK government has caused consternation in capitals around the world by seeming to waver on its commitments to net zero emissions and the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Sunak’s decision over the summer to “max out” the North Sea by licensing new oil and gas fields raised eyebrows among many countries and climate diplomats.
www.theguardian.com/...
So what has happened this time that made Sunak chicken out of the summit?
From NPR:
In a press conference Wednesday, Sunak announced a series of major U-turns on climate policies, including delaying by five years the target to ban sales of new gas and diesel cars — which will now come into force in 2035 rather than 2030 — and a nine-year delay on phasing out gas boilers, which will now come into force in 2035.
The BBC had it in more detail:
Mr Sunak said that people would still be able to buy new diesel and petrol vehicles until 2035 - a delay of five years on the previous plan, which set out to ban them by 2030.
He added that even after that, petrol and diesels cars would still be able to be sold second hand, saying a similar approach is being taken in countries such as Germany, France and Spain.
The prime minister said the change was being made to give people more time to make the transition to electric vehicles, saying the "upfront cost is still high".
"It should be you the consumer that makes that choice, not government forcing you to do it," he added.
However, he said that he still expects the "vast majority" of cars sold by 2030 to be electric, "because the costs are reducing, the range is improving, the charging infrastructure is growing".
But wait, there is more
The prime minister also pledged to scrap policies that would force landlords to upgrade energy efficiency in their homes, but would "encourage" households to do so.
The old policy was that from 2025, new tenancies would only be possible on properties with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of C or higher - from 2028, this would apply to existing tenancies as well. Both have been scrapped.
But why this sudden change of heart?
Sunak said the changes were about being "pragmatic" and sparing the British public the "unacceptable cost" of net-zero commitments.
His home secretary, Suella Braverman, told the BBC that the Conservative government was "not going to save the planet by bankrupting British people."
So in other words: The British people can’t afford to spend more money to prevent the climate crisis from getting worse.
But Sunak got push-back from an unexpected direction.
In a statement, U.K. Ford chair Lisa Brankin said, "Our business needs three things from the U.K. government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three."
Ouch. If even the automobile industry thinks this move was wrong, then you know how badly you have fucked up. But it even got worse:
A leading energy boss has warned the government against undermining business confidence in the UK through weakening the country’s green goals.
Chris Norbury, chief executive of Big Six supplier Eon UK – home to five million customers, feared that watering down plans to phase out fossil fuel powered cars and boilers would jeopardise the certainty companies needed to transition to low carbon products.
He feared this was a “mis-step on many levels” – that risked the UK missing out on opportunities to “transform” the economy.
“From a business perspective, companies wanting to invest in the UK need long term certainty to create the jobs and economic prosperity the country needs,” he said.
www.cityam.com/...
But Sunak proclaimed that despite these changes, the climate goal of net zero in 2050 would be met, but first an election is coming up in 2025 which he has to win (I admit sneakily adding the second part of that sentence by myself).
Sure, Richi, there is still a lot of time until then and you just have to put in a little more effort. I do the same with my diet. My doctor want’s me to lose 30 kilos by 2025 unless I don’t want to drop dead with a heart attack, but I'm still going to eat some junk food this year because I can't afford the healthy food. But next year I'll start for sure, I promise.
Poor Richi, now you’ve lost about every ally you ever had and to top it all off, made yourself the laughingstock of the Marsh family.