Pity the King having to read Sunak’s words

WE should have spared a thought for King Charles on November 7. He has been an environmentalist since his days as a student and has applied organic methods at his Highgrove farm.

As early as 2013 he gave a speech insisting that corporations were hastening the death of the planet. At Cop 21 (Paris 2015) he reminded the delegates that their decisions would have a profound effect on the lives of their grandchildren. At Cop 26, he made four speeches on climate dangers and this spring he decided that the Crown Estates would grant licences for six new offshore wind farms. He is profoundly worried about the global evidence of what awaits us.

Meanwhile, some UK politicians still childishly repeat that “scientists can be wrong” and that “climate changes are cyclical” as if there is no link between climate, weather and human activity. King Charles has the courage to recognise that it is the climate crisis that lies behind the UK weather chaos of last week.

But in opening the 2023/24 Parliamentary session on the 7th, Charles had to list the legislative plans of this increasingly dangerous Tory Government using the phrase “My Government” several times.

How did he feel when ‘his Government’ recently granted over 100 licences for new oil and gas developments off UK coasts? How did he feel when the Tories set the price to be earned by offshore wind companies too low, so that no company could afford to bid for permission to construct new turbines?

And now in the King’s Speech he has had to state that “his Government” continues (boosting climate harm) with a new law further encouraging North Sea fossil fuel development.

This comes after recent changes that delay the phasing-out of gas boilers and the introduction of energy efficiency targets for rented properties. The boss of E.ON said this was a “misstep on many levels... condemning people to live in expensive-to-heat homes in cities clogged with dirty air”. He added that the Tories used “false arguments” in claiming that green energy was unacceptably expensive.

Other energy bosses criticise this moribund Government for failing to develop proper energy and industrial policies, stating that “cutting the green crap” (to use

David Cameron’s infamous phrase), was deeply harmful.

The Royal Statistical Society recognises that the Cameron policy has added £150 to the average household energy bill every year since Dave’s initiative in 2013.

Energy bosses surely know their industry better than a Government that falsifies in the hope of winning votes in the coming election. How much will Sunak’s chopping and changing add to our fuel bills over the coming decades?

As for the car ‘policies’ of the so-called ‘party of business’... Industry bosses say the Tory delay in phasing out internal combustion engines beggars belief. CEOs of

Ford, Opel, Fiat and others state that Sunak’s abandoning of ambition for technological change “hampers efforts to boost jobs and skills, especially in parts of the country that risk being left behind”.

This hugely retrograde chaos discourages investment and productivity. Consistency would mean enormous strides in reducing our national carbon footprint. It would also help in Michael Gove’s much vaunted intention to ‘level up’. Another policy that seems to have been chucked aside in the Tory desperation to win a few more votes sometime soon.

Sunak says he’s “providing certainty and confidence”. Yes, certainty that the Tories regard their environment “promises” as “crap”, and confidence that they will harm our technological progress in order to pretend that their sinking ship has life rafts that will take us to national security. I wonder if King Charles believes all this?

Jeremy Hall Exeter, Devon