Today the Environmental Audit Committee publishes a
letter sent from the Chair of the Committee, Rt Hon
Philip Dunne MP, to the Prime Minister, Rt
Hon MP, raising
questions arising from the Prime
Minister’s recent announcement on net zero
measures.
The Committee raised concern about the “presentation of the
debate over net zero measures as a binary choice between those
who oppose net zero policies on the grounds of excessive costs,
excessive burdens or rejection of the evidence of climate change,
and those who demand change at a pace which is impractical or
unaffordable”.
The Committee lamented that the speech was made the day after the
House of Commons rose for the conference recess, instead of
leaving “time for a statement to be made to the House”.
The letter highlights that a number of the policy
proposals recently “scrapped” by the Prime Minister were not yet
established Government policy, and asked whether they
were under active consideration by Ministers for
implementation.
The Committee calls for a revised Carbon Budget Delivery
Plan in light of the changes to Government policy and
the Prime Minister’s assertion that international and
domestic decarbonisation commitments can still be met.
The letter also requests information on the impact of the delay
to the proposed ban on new petrol and diesel cars and how this
relates to the mandate for manufacturers to increase sales of EV
vehicles to 80% by 2030. It has raised similar questions about
the impact of delay to the proposed ban on the installation of
oil and LPG boilers and new coal heating, and how this
relates to the mandate for boiler manufacturers to increase sales
of heat pumps by 2030 and the welcome increased Boiler Upgrade
Scheme grant to £7,500. The committee also expressed concern
about recent dissolution of the Energy
Efficiency Taskforce.
Chair of the Environmental Audit
Committee, Rt Hon
Philip Dunne MP, said:
“The transition to net zero is one of the greatest challenges
facing the UK. The decision to delay some targets, such as the
ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, is disappointing,
but reflects the Government’s assessment of the scale
of the mammoth task ahead.
“In last week’s announcements the Prime Minister sought
to reaffirm his administration’s firm commitment to
reaching net zero, while delaying certain important measures and
relaxing others. It concerns the Committee that these
announcements were not accompanied with a clear plan setting out
how the UK’s decarbonisation commitments are now to be met,
and the Committee today calls for a revised Carbon Budget
Delivery Plan to be produced urgently.
“There is a high degree of consensus – in Parliament and amongst
the public – on the need to reduce emissions in the face of the
threat of climate change. While pragmatic implementation is
vital, pace must be maintained.
“In today’s letter the Committee calls on the
Prime Minister to avoid falling into the trap of presenting net
zero as an all-or-nothing, binary choice. The environment and the
economy are not in opposition to one another. On the
contrary, green policies are a key part of sustainable
growth.
“We echo the Prime Minister’s call for transparency in politics.
Last week’s raft of policy announcements could have provided a
great opportunity for the Government to have these policy changes
debated by Parliament before the recess. Parliamentary scrutiny
is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, and good scrutiny
makes for good government.
“I look forward to the Prime Minister, in the spirit of
openness and transparency he advocated in his speech,
providing further detail on these policies to my
colleagues on the committee, and to facilitating
constructive parliamentary scrutiny of the Government’s net
zero strategy.”
