After the UK's bold COP26 pledges, why is Rishi Sunak watering down green measures?

Two years ago, when the UK hosted the UN Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, the government's message was that nothing could be more urgent than addressing the climate crisis. 

At the time, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the situation was so urgent that it was "one minute to midnight on the doomsday clock and we need to act now."

For Johnson, that translated into a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, phasing out fossil fuel boilers in UK homes by 2026, and forcing landlords to make their homes more energy efficient.

The pledges at the time were scoffed at by many climate activists, who believed that such measures did not go far enough if the UK was to truly commit to its pledge of reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century. 

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But fast forward two years, and Johnson's former finance minister, now UK leader, Rishi Sunak appears to be reneging on a slew of his predecessor's promises. 

A ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will now be applied in 2035 instead of 2030. Transport accounts for a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions. 

‌Meanwhile, buildings - including homes - account for 17 percent, so it raised a few eyebrows when Sunak also announced that phasing out fossil fuel boilers in UK homes would now be done by 2035, not 2026. Even then, 20 percent of homes will be exempt because they're deemed unsuitable for electric heat pumps.

‌As for Johnson's third pledge, landlords will now be 'encouraged' instead of 'forced' to make their homes more energy efficient. So why the changes?

Sunak has said, despite intense criticism from the the government's main climate body over the watered down green measures, that he still believes the UK will hit its net zero target in 2050, claiming he had "absolute confidence and belief" the country was on track to meet its end goal.

He has also said that it would not be right for "working families" to face significant costs during the country's transition to net zero.

However, Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, has suggested that Sunak was guilty of "wishful thinking." He points out that the UK has been cutting emissions by about 1 percent per year outside of the power sector, which needs to quadruple over the next eight years if the goals are to be hit.

But the UK government says it has "cut emissions faster than any other G7 country" and has "one of the most ambitious 2035 climate change targets of any major economy."

Sunak is attending COP28 in Dubai this year, and will also allow King Charles III, an ardent climate activist, to make a keynote speech at the conference, a year after reportedly banning the monarch from attending COP27. Both men have been criticized for their plans to travel to the summit by private jet. 

Whether the coming climate summit will have any kind of impact on the UK's future approach remains to be seen, as governments around Europe attempt to assuage anger over the teething pains of safeguarding our environment. 

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