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The Conservatives won by 495 votes in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-elections, but fears of losing the election have prompted both Conservatives and Labor to review their environmental policies.
Both parties have pinned the outcome on the unpopularity of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to expand ultra-low emission zones (Ules) to the outskirts of London.
Urez is not a climate change policy, despite what some politicians claim. Instead, it is designed to purify the capital’s illegally polluted air, which causes an estimated 4,000 premature deaths annually.
Nonetheless, many long-established green policies now seem to be in question, from the 2030 ban on internal combustion engines in private vehicles that cannot drive “significant miles” in zero-emission mode, to the need for landlords to better assess the energy efficiency of their properties.
That’s despite warnings from the government’s independent adviser, the Climate Change Commission (CCC), that progress on climate change is already reversing.
Dillon Smith, a researcher at the Center for Policy Studies (CPS) think tank, said the Urez expansion was particularly poor in policy communication. Iwhich contributed to its unpopularity.
Overall, net-zero by 2050 and climate change policies generally remain very popular. A May poll by the Energy and Climate Information Agency found that 69 percent nationwide supported net zero, including 66 percent of Conservative voters in 2019.
But Smith explained that much of the progress made so far in tackling the problem of carbon emissions, such as building offshore wind farms, has happened in the background with no direct consumer impact other than a green tax.
Future progress will require direct consumer change, and the debate over who should pay for it is likely to be even more difficult.
“If decarbonization is to be taken seriously on the scale that the IPCC believes is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, it will require a very difficult and honest dialogue with voters and governments to get their act together,” Smith said.
Ures
Urez is not climate policy. Some of the debates and debates surrounding it include moving people to other modes of transportation, but Smith pointed out that the main purpose of clean air policies like Ules is simply to get people to ride in clean cars, not to abandon them altogether.
Khan is now considering stepping up efforts to reduce the fiscal impact of the policy, but is reportedly determined to push ahead with the expansion at the end of August.
Also, the Uxbridge by-election is unlikely to affect other clean air zones, such as the ‘Blum Breeze’ project in Birmingham. The reason for this is for the simple reason that these zones are less controversial than the Ules expansion and most are already in place.
Of the ones already announced, only Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone has yet to be implemented due to problems with local bus renovations.
In addition, existing pollution laws and multiple unsuccessful lawsuits legally oblige national and local politicians to take action.
Nonetheless, Smith suggested that if future local governments wish to follow suit, they should emphasize the benefits of the policy over the costs, preferably neutralizing the revenues of the municipalities by using the fees to directly fund a program for poor households to replace their cars.
Ban on petrol and diesel vehicles
One of the most popular targets for attacks by the Backbench Conservatives is a 2030 ban on the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines that cannot travel “significant miles” in zero-emission mode. This is more ambitious and tough than the European Union’s ban.
And on Monday, the prime minister declined to say whether he would keep the policy.
But failure to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles will severely undermine the UK’s ability to meet its 2050 climate change targets. The CCC estimates that 43% of UK cars will need to be electrified by 2030 to reach net zero, but earlier this year it was found that the country was not on track to reach that target.
In fact, electric cars represent a larger percentage of new car sales than the CCC expected or demanded, but as prices continue to fall, part of a market contraction due to post-COVID-19 travel changes, electric cars should become more attractive to buyers.
Nonetheless, manufacturers argue they need regulatory certainty to plan ahead, while the government is well off target for the widespread use of electric vehicle chargers needed to enable mass ownership.
Relaxing the 2030 pledge will only lock in emissions growth for the long term, and the problem will only move forward.
“Calls to slow down on the environment are often economically incoherent. For example, companies buy 60% of all new cars and want to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, because they can save money. But there are no adequate charging point plans in the UK,” said Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson.
landlord efficiency rule
Another big worry for Conservative net-zero skeptics is that landlords will be required to make their homes more energy efficient by 2028 or face a £30,000 fine. The new lease agreement is due by 2025. This was a policy highlighted by Secretary of State Michael Gove Levelup as a policy that might need to be relaxed.
With a stock of aging and poorly insulated homes in the UK, heating accounts for 14 percent of total emissions. However, one of her households in five lives in privately rented housing, which means it is an essential factor in reducing emissions in the country.
It’s hard to separate this from the impact of higher interest rates, but some data suggests landlords may be selling instead of paying thousands of dollars to upgrade their properties.
The National Landlords Association is adamant that the 2025/28 deadline cannot be met, partly due to the government’s late announcement. They want not only greater financial support for landlords, but also greater regulatory certainty.
Helen Clarkson said policies should be strengthened, not weakened. “Having a landlord fix a drafty apartment will save you far more than it costs.
Meanwhile, according to CCC, the lack of certainty in supporting and regulating the insulation of homes and rental homes has hampered investment and expansion by insulation companies, keeping costs high.
Investing in net zero and climate change
While individual policies are under attack, some Conservatives are calling for the very idea of achieving net zero by 2050 to be dropped.
But such claims have come so far from longtime skeptics like Lord Frost, who recently called wind turbines “medieval”, and to do so would require Britain to scrap international treaties, not just parliamentary legislation.
Nevertheless, Labor has already watered down existing pledges to spend £28bn a year on the green economy, citing deteriorating financial conditions in the UK. And last month, Zak Goldsmith resigned as environment minister, accusing Rishi Sunak of indifference to environmental policy.
The UK legally mandates net zero. Nevertheless, as the CCC warned in June, the UK is already off track for 2050.
Achieving it will require more, if not less, effort than has already been expended. Abandoning it, on the other hand, would put the UK out of step with global public opinion and probably struggle to attract investment from green companies.
As Clarkson points out, the US, China and the EU have already invested hundreds of billions of pounds in going green.
Smith said it failed to provide a clear signal to investors. I, the UK would miss. The CPS has backed market-based solutions rather than the massive subsidy schemes seen abroad, but said it “has failed to give investors a signal that the UK is taking it seriously”. [green] ‘Thing’ means ‘Investors will take notice and jobs will be found elsewhere’.