British PM Announces Net Zero Retreat as King Charles Visits France

Spread the love

From Watts Up With That?

Prime MInister Rishi Sunak. By Chris McAndrew – link, CC BY 3.0, link. King Charles at COP21. Public Domain, Link

Essay by Eric Worrall

Did Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wait until King Charles was safely on his way to France, before announcing a Net Zero retreat?

Rishi Sunak delays petrol car ban in major shift on green policies

By Sam Francis
Political reporter, BBC News

In a speech from Downing Street on Wednesday, Mr Sunak said moving too fast on green policies “risks losing the consent of the British people”.

Among the key changes announced were:

  • A five-year delay in the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, meaning a requirement for all new cars to be “zero emission” will not come into force until 2035
  • A nine-year delay in the ban on new fossil fuel heating for off-gas-grid homes to 2035
  • Raising the Boiler Upgrade Grant by 50% to £7,500 to help households who want to replace their gas boilers
  • The ban on the sale of new gas boilers in 2035 remains, but the government will introduce new exemption for poorer households
  • Scrapping the requirement on landlords to ensure all rental properties had a Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of grade C or higher, from 2025.

…Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66871457

Meanwhile, King Charles addressed the French Parliament on the need for greater climate ambition;

King Charles uses historic address to French parliament to label global warming an ‘existential challenge’ and call for a ‘sustainability agreement’ with France – hours after Rishi U-turned on green targets

By MARTIN ROBINSON, CHIEF REPORTER and REBECCA ENGLISH, ROYAL EDITOR IN PARIS

PUBLISHED: 16:41 AEST, 21 September 2023 | UPDATED: 03:20 AEST, 22 September 2023

King Charles made history today by becoming the first British monarch to address the French Senate – and used his speech to declare global warming as ‘our most existential challenge’ – just hours after Rishi Sunak put the brakes on Net Zero.

The monarch spoke of the close friendship between the UK and France but focused on tackling climate change, calling for a new ‘entente cordiale’ specifically to ‘tackle the global climate and biodiversity emergency’.

Speaking in perfect French, Charles suggested France and Britain needed the same unity shown in the World Wars and now Ukraine to ‘stand together’ on the environment, shortly after the PM warned that imposing ‘unacceptable costs’ and ‘heavy-handed’ proposals on families risked wrecking support for saving the planet.

…Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12543555/King-Charles-British-monarch-history-address-French-senate-today-meeting-rugby-stars-Brigitte-Macron.html

Waiting until the king is out of the country, before staging a revolution – there is plenty of precedent for that.

Not that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s timid retreat could really be described as a revolution – more likely a desperate attempt to bring false hope to furious voters, many of whom are counting the minutes until they can throw his incompetent administration out of office.