Sunak’s net zero excuses are just so much hot air

2023-10-01 -

TO borrow a term from the newsroom, Rishi Sunak has done a reverse ferret on efforts to reach net zero.

The ban on new petrol and diesel cars has been pushed back from 2030 to 2035.

And instead of no new gas boilers from 2035, 20% of new heating systems will still be able to use gas from that point.

These changes have been lauded as a dose of reality, given the cost to consumers of switching to green tech.

But do these moves really make Sunak a net zero hero? Or is he more of a villain?

Let’s have a look...

NET ZERO HERO

Despite watering down policies, the Government still wants to hit the target by 2050. This is good.

Net zero isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s based on atmospheric physics.

This tells us that as long as we add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, the temperature will keep going up.

So, until we reach net zero, the Earth will get ever hotter and extreme weather will become increasingly severe.

At net zero, any CO2 we add to the atmosphere is cancelled out by the gas we remove from the atmosphere.

And the temperature of the planet will finally stop rising.

By pushing back the transition to zero carbon, Sunak is condemning us to more severe climate change.

The amount of warming we experience is based on the total, cumulative emissions that go into the atmosphere over time.

So, if we have petrol and diesel cars for longer, that means more emissions and even more warming.

Rolling back targets also means we lose any moral authority we have to encourage countries like China to do more.