Friday, August 11, 2023
Tory row about net zero rumbles on
The Independent reports that Energy secretary Grant Shapps has warned senior Conservatives pushing for Rishi Sunak to ditch green policies that the government’s net zero pledge remains vital.
The paper says that Shapps has pointed out that the global climate crisis poses a threat to Britain’s security and energy supply, countering Tory MPs who are calling for No 10 to scrap measures deemed too costly:
“We can’t have global security without net zero,” Mr Shapps told Politico. “There’s no global security if millions of people are having to uproot because of weather patterns.”
He also unveiled plans for the UK to host a global energy security summit next year, and hinted that China could be invited, saying he wanted the conference “to be inclusive”.
Oil giants like Qatar and Saudi Arabia should be “in the room” at what he said would be a “real-world, gritty energy-security conference where we are talking about the realities of the world that we live in”.
But he faced an immediate backlash from Tory MPs on both issues. Ex-business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told The Independent that Mr Shapps was “fundamentally wrong”, and insisted that the UK is a major contributor to global security “through our economic strength”.
“The rush to net zero at the expense of the economy is a threat to global security,” Mr Rees-Mogg said. On China, he added: “I think to take the view that China enhances our security in any way is eccentric.”
Mr Sunak has appeared to shift his tone on green policies after his party unexpectedly clung on to its Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat by seizing on the backlash against the London mayor’s proposal to expand the Ulez scheme, which levies a fee on some motorists in an effort to combat air pollution.
The PM – who vowed to be on the side of motorists and said “banning things” was not the right approach – also gave the green light to 100 new licences for oil and gas exploration and production in the North Sea, despite opposition from environmentalists and green Tories.
Some Tory backbenchers have urged Mr Sunak to go further and renounce plans to ban new oil boilers by 2026 and new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030.
But Mr Shapps has sent a strong signal that he believes in the push away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, arguing it is a vital part of the promise to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The energy secretary said that “part of the answer” to energy supply problems can be found in “the need to diversify from fossil fuels”. He added: “Greater diversity could actually give us much greater security.”
He said: “Imagine if the UK hadn’t moved from less than 7 per cent renewables to – as we see in the first quarter of 2023 – 47 per cent renewables. Imagine that hadn’t happened and we went into the energy shock. What would the impact have been?”
In many ways this row reflects the debate over Brexit.
The paper says that Shapps has pointed out that the global climate crisis poses a threat to Britain’s security and energy supply, countering Tory MPs who are calling for No 10 to scrap measures deemed too costly:
“We can’t have global security without net zero,” Mr Shapps told Politico. “There’s no global security if millions of people are having to uproot because of weather patterns.”
He also unveiled plans for the UK to host a global energy security summit next year, and hinted that China could be invited, saying he wanted the conference “to be inclusive”.
Oil giants like Qatar and Saudi Arabia should be “in the room” at what he said would be a “real-world, gritty energy-security conference where we are talking about the realities of the world that we live in”.
But he faced an immediate backlash from Tory MPs on both issues. Ex-business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told The Independent that Mr Shapps was “fundamentally wrong”, and insisted that the UK is a major contributor to global security “through our economic strength”.
“The rush to net zero at the expense of the economy is a threat to global security,” Mr Rees-Mogg said. On China, he added: “I think to take the view that China enhances our security in any way is eccentric.”
Mr Sunak has appeared to shift his tone on green policies after his party unexpectedly clung on to its Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat by seizing on the backlash against the London mayor’s proposal to expand the Ulez scheme, which levies a fee on some motorists in an effort to combat air pollution.
The PM – who vowed to be on the side of motorists and said “banning things” was not the right approach – also gave the green light to 100 new licences for oil and gas exploration and production in the North Sea, despite opposition from environmentalists and green Tories.
Some Tory backbenchers have urged Mr Sunak to go further and renounce plans to ban new oil boilers by 2026 and new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030.
But Mr Shapps has sent a strong signal that he believes in the push away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, arguing it is a vital part of the promise to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The energy secretary said that “part of the answer” to energy supply problems can be found in “the need to diversify from fossil fuels”. He added: “Greater diversity could actually give us much greater security.”
He said: “Imagine if the UK hadn’t moved from less than 7 per cent renewables to – as we see in the first quarter of 2023 – 47 per cent renewables. Imagine that hadn’t happened and we went into the energy shock. What would the impact have been?”
In many ways this row reflects the debate over Brexit.
The government is dominated by the little Englanders, who think they can pull up the drawbridge and go their own way, as long as they get richer, only to be shocked by the reality of an interdependent world economy that has hit trade with the UK and pushed up costs and prices because of the decision to cut ourselves off from our biggest trading partner.
We now have those same little Englanders thinking the UK can isolate itself from the consequences of climate change and, as a result, does not need to fulfil its international obligations to tackle global warming. If they are not living on another planet, they should be sent to one.
We now have those same little Englanders thinking the UK can isolate itself from the consequences of climate change and, as a result, does not need to fulfil its international obligations to tackle global warming. If they are not living on another planet, they should be sent to one.
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Mogg and economic strength.I remember when we were the 4th largest economy,we are now the 6th.Sliding down the economic ladder and the way we are seen around the world labels him as one of the Little Englanders that is dragging us down.
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