Russia’s invasion of Ukraine really appears to be a turning level on this narrative. Within the autumn of 2022, vitality costs within the UK skyrocketed, however reply Liz Truss, then Prime Minister, was to redouble efforts to probe for oil and fuel and I refuse to ask individuals scale back vitality consumption. It was a totally reverse strategy to many European international locations confronted the identical downside.
Whereas [the invasion] occurred, clearly it was an actual disaster and I assumed local weather would come down the checklist of priorities. However in my technocratic thoughts, I additionally thought it could create an incentive to maneuver away from high-carbon fuels – if you wish to know what a world with a excessive carbon worth seems like, we’ll discover out.
What I did not anticipate was that the inexperienced arguments got here out of the blocks too late, as a result of the pro-fossil gasoline arguments instantly stepped in and stated, “This is the reason we’d like home provides of fossil fuels.” That actually essential argument – to behave on it as a result of fossil gasoline costs are so unstable and so costly – received just a little misplaced from the political airwaves on the time, and we moved on to a special model of what the nation wanted to do.
The irony of this complete interval is that we’re working out of oil and fuel. So, in the long run, attempting to get the very best oil and fuel licenses within the North Sea will not be a reputable technique.
A yr later, Thruss’ successor Rishi Sunak got here out with massive speech Rolling again key measures to fight local weather change, together with pushing again the deadline for a ban on the sale of latest petrol and diesel vehicles to 2030.
If we take a look at this purely as a political speech, there was extra pro-climate politics than delayed local weather politics. For instance, there he talks about accelerating “inexperienced” investments. And an electrical automobile [pushing back the 2030 deadline] This wasn’t that massive of a shift since we have been already permitting hybrids till 2035.
However what did the nation hear? They heard: “Don’t fear, now will not be the time to modify to electrical automobiles.” It is onerous to pin something down to 1 speech, however if you happen to take a look at the share of electrical automobiles bought within the UK, it hasn’t modified since September. I am certain there are different components concerned, however there can be individuals who suppose, “Properly, perhaps I do not want this electrical automobile proper now.”
It seems that the present authorities has determined to make interesting to motorists a key election marketing campaign technique. In July 2023, the Labor Occasion narrowly misplaced the by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and lots of commentators believed that the Conservative candidate received this election on account of his opposition Extremely Low Emission Zone.
What occurred there was fascinating. The Labor Occasion additionally accepted the narrative that the ULEZ was the explanation they didn’t win the constituency. It is inevitable that any election will elevate quite a lot of points, but when all events suppose it is about environmental coverage, it isn’t shocking that it then turns into one of many dominant points in politics.