Racism in the UK Conservative Party

• The Conservative Environment Network, an independent forum for conservatives who support net zero, and others including Greenpeace, are trying to stiffen his spine.
• But Sunak appears minded to appease those on the “right” who are opposed to anything green.

The UK story

• Thanks to switching from coal to gas in the 1990s, and moving industry offshore, the UK could for a long-time boast of reducing its emissions and speak nobly of sustainable development.
• In 1997, Tony Blair said the UK would go further in cutting emissions than whatever target was set at the UN conference in Kyoto, the first agreement by rich nations to cut greenhouse gases.
• Very few Conservative MPs voted against the 2008 Climate Change Act, which set an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 and placed restrictions on the amount of greenhouse gases the UK could emit over five-year periods.
• After the Paris agreement in 2015, which the UK signed, it became clear that 80% would not be enough of a target to have the UK meet its obligations to do its part to keep global warming under 2℃.

So what’s gone wrong?

• They get the glow, without the pain of upsetting either vested interests or demanding that ordinary people change their behaviour.
• What we are seeing now, I believe, is a collision between what the promises were and what the immediate action has to be.
• But once in power, Conservative governments have tended to prioritise “free markets” over what they label as irksome or socialistic environmental regulation.