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Net Zero? You have no idea, Rishi Sunak
Every delay getting to net zero is a bad idea, which is why Rishi Sunak’s speech is bad news.
The above two diagrams show two extreme theoretical paths to net zero. The area under each graph shows how much CO2 would be emitted before 2050, and therefore how much we would be adding to global warming. The second one indicates how much greater our emissions would be by delaying. And therefore what state the world would be in by then, if other countries followed Sunak’s lead. Getting to net zero by 2050 is not enough — how we get there matters. Simon Oldridge has posted a video explaining this. We can disagree on what steps we should take to get there, but not on how quickly we need to do so.
Rishi Sunak’s speech
Prime minister Rishi Sunak just gave a speech on net zero, apparently triggered by a leak of his plans to water down his policies if not a complete U-turn. The text of his speech on 20 September can be found here. I’ll pass over the feel-good waffle and skip his claims about progress on his 5 priorities and get straight to the net zero points. His speech updates or replaces the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener published in October 2021.
“can we put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment, even if it means being controversial?”