By Kate Holton and William James
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak watered down Britain’s commitments to tackle climate change on Wednesday, saying he would delay targets for changing cars and domestic heating to maintain the consent of the British people in the switch to net zero.
Sunak said his government remained committed to hitting its legally-binding target of producing net zero emissions by 2050, but he delayed goals on electric vehicles, heat pumps and insulation that were required to underpin the transition.
A ban on new petrol and diesel cars was pushed back to 2035 from 2030 while targets around the phased introduction of heat pumps to replace gas boilers in homes were also eased.
He said he would not create new taxes to discourage flying, would not ban new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, or force any household to take energy efficiency measures.
Sunak said he had set the new policy because Britain had already taken huge strides in tackling climate change, and he believed previous governments had moved too quickly on setting targets, without securing the support of the public.
“If we continue down this path, we risk losing the British people and the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies, but against the wider mission itself,” he said.
Reports that Sunak was due to water down some of the country’s net zero policies have drawn scorn from environmental campaigners and businesses producing everything from cars to solar panels, EV charging points and power.
(Writing by Kate Holton; additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, William James, Susanna Twidale, Muvija M, Nick Carey, Sachin Ravikumar, Sarah Young, Gloria Dickie; editing by Gareth Jones, Kirsten Donovan)
