Conservatives Vow to Ditch Climate Commitments

As the planet burns

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

The leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, “Kemi Badenoch has vowed to repeal the Climate Change Act if the Conservatives win the next election,” reports The Guardian today. They’ll be “doing away with controls on greenhouse gas emissions and dismantling what has been the cornerstone of green and energy policy for successive governments.”

I am gobsmacked. The Conservatives have been promoting themselves as ‘green’ Conservatives for years, and now seem to be so afraid of ‘Reform’ (a competing party growing in momentum) that they are ditching the green agenda in favour of “growth, cheaper energy, and protecting the natural landscapes we all love,” says the Guardian.

While I’m not against the latter, the vast majority of the British population and businesses recognise that climate change is real and a big threat and that the only way forward is a cleaner economy that’s not so reliant on fossil fuels.

I love that there are electric cars everywhere at the moment. I love to see people adopting the new technologies. I installed solar panels on our house last year. It is cheap energy. There’s no conflict between a green agenda and cheap energy. But to ditch our climate commitments feels like a massive backward step that goes against much of what the Conservatives…