Earlier this year, Rishi Sunak set out his five pledges as UK Prime Minister:

1. Halve inflation
2. Grow the economy
3. Reduce debt
4. Cut NHS waiting lists
5. Stop small boats

So, no mention of the climate emergency here. Indeed, more recently, Rishi Sunak has stepped back on net zero commitments.

On Wednesday 20^th September 2023, The Guardian newspaper reported, ‘UK prime minister delays ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars as he pushes back on net zero goals.’ In the same article, he was quoted as remaining committed to net zero by 2050, but it’s hard to see how this can help achieve net zero by the 2050 deadline.

Move forward eight days, to 28^th September 2023, and Victoria Seabrook, Climate Reporter for Sky News reported, ‘Untapped Rosebank oil and gas field north of Scotland approved for development amid row over climate damage.’

While this was a Conservative led government decision, Rishi Sunak is on the record as being supportive of the move.

It has been mooted by some pundits that this may be a deliberate strategy to win over some voters who think that climate change measures are moving too far and too fast. This has not been confirmed or denied, but I find it incredible that this should even be a possibility in 2023.

In a year where wildfires and floods have ravaged many places around the world, how can this NOT be seen as the number one issue for every political party? Thousands of lives have been lost and there is broad agreement among climate scientists that many of these events have been caused, or exacerbated by climate change.

Is it because these disasters were abroad? I can’t believe that people in the UK don’t see this as a global issue. Do the UK public not remember some of our own flooding issues, washing bridges away, which had been in place for many years and destroying local businesses over and over again? What about the wildfires in East London, which caused massive damage to many properties, or the Dartford Fires of July 2022?

We are all in this together. We have to play our part in reducing the production of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to safe levels. In my opinion, this is not an issue we can afford to put off any longer.

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