23 April 2024 – The outgoing chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said that the UK Government’s recent actions on climate change have sent the message that climate change is no longer prioritised in the UK as it once was.
In a BBC interview, the outgoing head of the CCC, Chris Stark, discussed how the UK is doing in terms of reaching its climate change targets. And his verdict isn’t favourable.
Mr Stark said that due to the Prime Minister’s recent scale back of climate change actions, the UK sends a message to the world that it’s prioritising climate change less than it did. This loss of credibility will be hard to recover from.
What The Head Of The CCC Said
As part of the Climate Change Act 2008, the then government created an independent, statutory body to advise the UK and devolved governments on climate change action, the Climate Change Committee (CCC). A watchdog that will advise and hold the UK government to account for their climate change policies.
On Friday, 26 April 2024, Chris Stark will step down as chief executive of the CCC, after six years at helm of the UK’s climate watchdog. In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, he answered questions about the state of the UK’s progress on climate change action.
Mr Stark said that the UK was once at the forefront of climate change action, pointing at the country’s success in decarbonising its electricity generation, having closed coal-fired power plants.
The UK was pushing ahead quickly to implement measures that would help stop climate change. However, we have lost this pole position, thanks to Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on climate targets last autumn.
I think it’s [the PM’s changes to climate policies] set us back.
Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the CCC
The watering down of the climate targets by the Prime Minister sends the message to the world that the UK is less ambitious about climate change than under his predecessors, Chris Shark claimed. While Theresa May and Boris Johnson made big progress to achieve net zero, Rishi Sunak has set the country back.
The outgoing head of the climate watchdog also said that the UK needs to do more in certain areas to achieve net zero. Heating our homes, industrial emissions, farming and transport systems are all areas where he sees a gap that needs to be closed.
Having accused Mr Sunak of setting the UK back by his changes to climate targets, he called on the Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer, potentially the next Prime Minister, to be bold when it comes to climate change action.
Politicians Afraid Of Talking About Climate Change
Mr Stark also accused UK politicians of being afraid of talking about climate change, despite people being able to see its impact out of their windows. We just had the hottest year on record and the past 18 months were the wettest ever in the UK.
He put this down to the climate being politicised by certain parts of the political spectrum who started a “dangerous” culture ware over climate change. The head of the Climate Change Comittee warned that the term “net zero” has become a political slogan that is no longer helpful.
Politicians on all sides shy away from being associated with the term out of fear of losing voters. Mr Shark said this can be seen in Rishi Sunak’s climate policy changes last year and Keir Starmer’s dropping his party’s pledge to spend £28bn a year to create a green economy.
This fear prevents the country from making progress and achieving its net zero targets. Because of this, the term “net zero” is unhelpful, and dropping it would be a good thing.
While it should be kept as a scientific target, Mr Stark believes, it shouldn’t be used as a badge for every programme. It doesn’t matter what we call it, the vital thing is that the UK reduces its emissions.
Our Opinion
Here at EcoHomeLife we have for a while been worried that climate change has become a political battleground, rather than an issue that needs sorting urgently. It has become a cultural issue that divides people, similar to Brexit.
With some people claiming that reaching net zero will cost the British people a lot of money and that it’s not needed. It was the same with Brexit, where politicians argued that we send too much money to the EU, which could be used to fund our NHS. Remember the slogan on that red bus?
Well, Brexit has happened, and the NHS is no better off. But some politicians realised that if they blame the EU for all the ills of the British people, they will get votes.
And the same is now happening with climate change. People across the country are struggling financially. And some political voices argue that net zero policies will make it even worse because it will cost people more money. By scaring them, they hope to gain their votes.
But if we don’t stop climate change, we all lose. The truth is, doing what is needed to prevent a climate crisis will cost money. But not doing it will cost money too.
We either spend money on decarbonising our economy and the energy grid, or we spend this money on repairing damage done by extreme weather events caused by climate change.
However, if we invest in preventing climate change we will save money in the long-term, and we all win.
