Rishi Sunak pledged to move forward water down key green measures despite intense criticism, as he continues to believe the UK will reach its net zero emissions target in 2050. From a report: The Prime Minister defended defying the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and said he had “absolute confidence and belief” that the country was on track to meet its end goal. In a BBC radio interview on Thursday morning, Sunak shrugged off suggestions he had ignored the views of the official body which advises governments on reducing emissions. He said: “I’m very happy to have everyone’s opinions and advice, and everyone is entitled to their view. We are very confident – being in government, with all the information at our disposal – that We are on track to achieve all our targets.”
Sunak told Radio 4’s Today program that Margaret Thatcher would have agreed with his reasoning and that it was not fair that “working families” were facing significant costs in the transition of the country towards net zero. But he struggled to provide an explanation for claims he abandoned measures that critics say were never seriously discussed, such as a so-called meat tax, mandatory car sharing and mandatory for households to use seven recycling bins. “These are all things that have been raised by very credible people,” he argued. When pressed, Sunak was unable to provide evidence that these specific measures had been suggested by anyone and instead said they had been advocated euphemistically by bodies such as the CCC .
