Families face huge bills
But ignoring climate issue ‘would cost us even more’
TACKLING climate change will cost families more, ministers admitted yesterday.
But not acting will cost even more in the long term, they warned.
Asked about the expense of going green, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the Government wants to try to ‘help people make that transition’.
Boris Johnson has committed to achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050 – a target that could cost £1.4trillion.
Families will shoulder much of this expense – up to £400 a year per household – through
‘It’s about policies, not just targets’
having to replace their gas boilers and switch to electric cars, among other things.
The pledge has caused fury in Tory circles, with MPs warning that the additional costs will hit lower earners in the Conservative-voting Red Wall. It has also reportedly led to clashes between the Prime Minister and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Mr Kwarteng said he wanted to see the Government help people to go green. He was concerned about the £20billion hole that switching to electric cars will leave when motorists no longer pay fuel duty – and raised the possibility it could be met by a new carbon tax.
On the rollout of electric vehicle charging points, he said: ‘We need to accelerate that. The next car I buy will be almost certainly an electric vehicle.’
Climate tsar Alok Sharma, president of the forthcoming Cop26 conference, warned that the cost of not acting on climate change could be ‘far greater’ than the expense of transition.
Last month the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the total cost to the UK of reaching net zero by 2050 could reach £1.4trillion. A report by the National Infrastructure Commission says the poorest tenth of households will pay an extra £80 a year in bills by 2050, the richest tenth an extra £400.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We’re leading the world in building back better and greener from the pandemic. We were the first major economy to commit to net zero by 2050 and one of the first to phase out petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, and just last week we announced more ambitious carbon emissions targets.
‘But this is about policies not just targets, which is why the Prime Minister has outlined an ambitious ten-point plan.’