Funny how unpopularity and an approaching election year can have an effect even on climate-obsessed politicians who love fantasising about ‘dealing with climate change’.
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Rishi Sunak is considering weakening some of the government’s key green commitments in a major policy shift, says BBC News.
It could include delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars and phasing out gas boilers, multiple sources have told the BBC.
The PM is preparing to set out the changes in a speech in the coming days.
There is no suggestion that Mr Sunak is considering abandoning the legal commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But he is expected to declare that other countries need to bear more of the burden of dealing with climate change.
If Mr Sunak presses ahead with the plan it would represent a significant shift in the Conservative Party’s approach to net zero policy, as well as establishing a clear dividing line with the Labour Party.
According to multiple sources briefed on Downing Street’s thinking, Mr Sunak would use the speech to hail the UK as a world leader on net zero.
But he would also argue that Britain has over-delivered on confronting climate change and that other countries need to do more to pull their weight.
Full article here.
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Update 20/09/23 – considering is over, changes announced:
Rishi Sunak pushes back ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035
PM announces delay to green targets
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-66863110
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Politicians love to tell fairy stories.
This was written:
According to multiple sources briefed on Downing Street’s thinking, Mr Sunak would use the speech to hail the UK as a world leader on net zero.
Being a World Leader on Net Zero is being a world leader in Self Destruction for the People and the Country! China, India, Russia, many countries are not world leaders on Self Destruction because they know climate change is natural, more importantly, they know that CO2, a trace gas does not control the naturally changing climate.
Now Pray tell me, what ARE the Car manufacturer’s supposed to do now then? Are they / are they not, to be continuing producing ICE cars. … Stupid question really – innit? the rest of the World still wants ICE cars – where to get them from then / otherwise?
“The legal commitment…”
Government makes the law. And the principle is that no government can bind a future government. The BBC is just trying to make it sound as if the government has no choice a d has to stick to Net Zero, but all it has to do is repeal the legislation and voila, there’s no legal commitment.
Civil war as Top Tory may submit no confidence letter in Rishi Sunak following eco u-turn
Chris Skidmore MP, who just last year was appointed by the Government to lead a review of Net Zero, has blasted Rishi Sunak’s enormous green u-turn.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1814603/Chris-Skidmore-Tories-Rishi-Sunak
Enormous!
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We won’t save planet by bankrupting Britain, says Braverman
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/20/rishi-sunak-news-live-suella-braverman-net-zero-latest/
Bankrupting it over a longer period isn’t much of a plan.
[update – Sky News reports her words as ‘bankrupting Britons‘ —
https://news.sky.com/story/climate-change-home-secretary-suella-braverman-says-were-not-going-to-save-the-planet-by-bankrupting-people-12965383%5D
BBC News:
Summary
— Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pushed back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030 to 2035
— Sunak says he still expects that by 2030 “the vast majority” of cars will be electric, because of improving technology
— He also says there will be “far more time” to transition from gas boilers to heat pumps
— A boiler upgrade scheme, which gives people cash grants, will be increased by 50% to £7,500
— And there is a new exemption for people in the poorest households, “so they never have to switch at all”
— He says he remains committed to net zero by 2050, but wants to “bring people with us”
— The aim of net zero is for the UK to take out of the atmosphere as many greenhouse gas emissions as it puts in
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-66863110
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Climate moanaholics struggling to digest all this 🙂
Labour will reinstate 2030 deadline for petrol and diesel car ban
20 September 2023
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/20/rishi-sunak-news-live-suella-braverman-net-zero-latest/
Will? Not had the election yet, and bans of popular products aren’t renowned as vote winners.
The idiots haven’t thought this net-zero through. If everyone has to drive an EV where is all the electricity to charge them? If they are charged at home what about all the upgrading of the electric supply cables in the roads to carry the load as well as the upgrading of the grid step down transformers.
oldbrew, with heat pumps there is the problem that they don’t work when the temperature gets down to something like 5C so what are people going to do in the winter, plus houses need to be designed to use them with the necessary insulated ducting, also where is the power coming from to run them?
This whole net zero stupidity need to be squashed and forgotten about because it won’t work.
Volvo Cars will end production of diesel models in early 2024
20 September 2023
By 2030 Volvo Cars plans to sell only fully electric cars and by 2040 aims to be a climate neutral company.
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2023/09/20230920-volvodiesel.html
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Not waiting for 2030, 2035 etc. but…
EU reaches deal banning ‘climate-neutral’ product claims
20 Sept 2023
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/eu-reaches-deal-banning-climate-neutral-product-claims/
Media Watch: Sunak’s Net Zero climbdown
Thursday 21st September 2023
https://www.netzerowatch.com/media-watch-sunaks-net-zero-climbdown/
NZW finds predictably biased media asking serial climate whingers what they think about it all.
Climate dogmatists still on the warpath…
The heat pumps farce has reached a new low
The Government is backing down on net zero, but doubling down on fining manufacturers that sell too many gas boilers
27 September 2023
Even though the government will soon be offering grants as high as £7,500 per home, heat pumps remain unpopular and take-up is running way below schedule.
So, like a Soviet commissar after a couple of vodkas too many, the government has just set a target instead. From next year, manufacturers will be told how many heat pumps they have to shift, based on the number of gas boilers they sell, and will face fines of up to £5,000 for every unit they fall short by.
Seriously? It is hard to know where this new wheeze of fining companies for not selling enough of government approved products might end.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/27/government-heat-pump-targets-fining-companies/
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So firms may be forced to charge more for gas boilers to (a) cover their fines on non-sales of heat pumps and/or (b) put more people off buying gas boilers. So much for customer choice.