A senior Tory minister has criticised his own Government for “not doing enough” to tackle the climate crisis.
Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell took a swipe at his party for not taking enough action on climate change only nine days before Rishi Sunak called the General Election. The senior Conservative, who is hoping to be re-elected as MP in Sutton Coldfield, said it is one of the “major problems” that needs tackling internationally.
Speaking at an event hosted by think tank Bright Blue in May, Mr Mitchell said: “Britain has been doing its stuff, the Prime Minister announced that we would give the biggest replenishment ever, $2billion, to the green climate fund, and we have taken over the co-chair of that.
“But climate change is the existential threat of our time. And although we are doing much to help tackle that, we are not doing enough.”
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Rishi Sunak was accused of having “set us back” on climate change by the chief of a government watchdog in April. Chris Stark, head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), told the BBC the PM had “clearly not” prioritised the issue as much as his predecessors.
Mr Sunak last year watered down a set of Net Zero pledges, including delaying a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035. Labour has pledged to reinstate the 2030 ban if it gets into power.
The PM on Sunday hit back at what he claimed was a “declinist narrative” when asked whether it was a mistake to change course on net zero. He insisted no other countries were forcing people to switch their cars for more environmentally friendly models when grilled by BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg.
He said: “I don’t think that it’s right to saddle British families with thousands of pounds of extra cost to switch out their car, their boiler, convert their home, when we don’t need to do that, no one else is doing that. I think that is the practical, sensible thing to do.”
More than 31 national governments have signed an international pledge to ensure that all new car and van sales are zero-emission by 2040 globally and by 2035 in “leading markets”.