Tory MPs fear that net zero is hurting poor people. Ignore their crocodile tears
Partygate has suggested that the prime minister has, shall we say, a flexible approach to the rule of law. The laws of physics, you would think, cannot be treated so carelessly – yet that is what is happening inside the Conservative party. There has been a relentless push by some MPs for the UK to abandon our climate targets and slow down, or even abandon, the transition to net zero emissions.
The goal of net zero by 2050 at the latest is not some fashionable green meme or virtue signalling by the comfortable middle classes. It is the measure we must take to keep the already painful and life-threatening impacts of climate change within the bounds of the manageable. This goal is shared not just by scientists and environmental campaigners but by 192 governments, more than 90 major banks and all of the world’s major investment managers.
Action on climate change is one of the few remaining areas where Britain has a credible claim to global leadership. Only three months ago, we were hosting the UN climate summit, Cop26, the most important international gathering in the UK for decades. We have set the pace in decarbonising our own economy and creating the global governance system to manage the response to the climate crisis. We have done so because it is in our national interest, as successive governments, Labour and Conservative, have recognised. We cannot ask other countries to aim for net zero if we abandon our commitment to it ourselves.
Yet that is just what the tiny group of Conservative MPs in the Net Zero Scrutiny Group are trying to make us do, in the latest salvo of their eccentric opposition to sound science. Led by Steve Baker and Craig Mackinlay and some of their faithful cheerleaders in the rightwing press, they are
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