PM will cash in emissions 'credit' to stick to net zero

Sunak is hoping to capitalize on the expected emissions surplus to push back the deadline. Photo: PA

Rishi Sunak plans to stay on the right side of strict carbon laws by cashing in on the UK's predicted «overproduction» over the next decade, The Telegraph understands.

Prime Minister and Claire Coutinho, The Net Zero secretary is believed to have concluded that the government could capitalize on the expected emissions surplus to push back deadlines, such as a ban on the sale of petrol cars in 2030, without breaching strict regulations. carbon budgets.

It is understood that internal assessments have shown that the changes, including delaying the 2030 ban by five years and relaxing the phase-out of gas boilers, are projected to increase emissions by just five per cent. However, the government is likely to face opposition from environmental groups and the Climate Change Committee (CCC), a statutory watchdog that opposed a similar move in Theresa May's final weeks in office, in June 2019. Mrs May and Lord Hammond, the then chancellor, were accused of trying to «toy with» climate change targets.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, suggested it would be «wishful thinking» to believe the government's revised plans would «achieve the legitimate objectives that this country has enacted in the Climate Change Act.»

Sam Fankhauser, professor of economics and climate change policy at Oxford University, confirmed to The Telegraph that the Net Zero secretary «does [have] the power to carry forward 'unused carbon' into the next budget period», but warned that she would need to consult the devolved administration and the CCC, which «has always made clear that it will not recommend devolution.»

As a result of the Labor-era Climate Change Act, a series of five-year «carbon budgets» cap carbon dioxide emissions at set levels, the latest of which was enshrined in law by Boris Johnson in 2021 for the period from 2033 to 2020. 2037.

This is the period to which the Government can carry forward the surplus of previous budget periods. In 2019, Philip Hammond, now Lord Hammond, carried over 88 megatonnes (million tonnes) of carbon pollution from the second carbon budget from 2013 to 2017, after the UK emitted 384 megatonnes below the budget limit of 2,782 megatonnes.

< p>Figures released by the government show the government is forecast to cut emissions by 121 megatonnes less than the cap set for the fourth carbon budget from 2023 to 2027, and 399 fewer than the cap for the next period, up to 2032 Andrea Leadsom, the former energy secretary, suggested the government should go further and change the Climate Change Act, saying carbon budgets were “a straitjacket that makes no commercial sense.”

Mr Sunak Lord Hammond welcomed the new approach to net zero.

He said: “Rishi Sunak identified the problem and saw the political advantage in it. It's not that people don't want to get a zero result, it's that they don't want to be taken for granted.»

The Prime Minister has presented Sir Keir Starmer with a dilemma, said he, arguing that the Labor leader was simultaneously trying to appeal to environmentally conscious young people as well as working-class voters in the party's former heartlands.

“Now Starmer is stumped: is he green or not? white van? It can’t be both,” said Lord Hammond.