(London) The United Kingdom is preparing to review its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested on Tuesday, a reversal likely to create divisions within his party.
Mr. Sunak, who is due to give a major speech on the subject on Friday, indicated on Tuesday that his government was committed to achieving this climate target, but that it would now try to do it “in a better, more proportionate way », in a press release.
These statements follow reports in the British press according to which Mr Sunak wants in particular to delay the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars planned for 2030 and to modify the plan to phase out gas boilers from of 2035.
For Mr Sunak, politicians of “all sides have not been honest about the costs and trade-offs” of this policy. He added that he would “put the long-term interests of our country ahead of the short-term political needs of the moment.”
This turnaround, if confirmed, is likely to create divisions within the Conservative Party, with some parliamentarians preparing letters of no confidence, according to media reports.
The former president of COP26 and conservative Alok Sharma estimated “that giving up this program will not help either economically or electorally”.
For his part, the opposition Labor Party MP in charge of Energy issues, Ed Miliband, mocked a “farce on the part of a Conservative government which literally does not know what it is doing on a day to day basis.” “.