Sunak seeks new UK net-zero settlement in face of ‘green-lash’

THE United Kingdom was the first large economy to make a legally binding commitment to 2050 net-zero goals – but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now seeking to reassess this.

Last Wednesday (Sep 20), Sunak held an emergency UK cabinet meeting with Parliament in recess. This built upon his earlier announcement of granting hundreds of new licences for North Sea oil and gas production, which started to shatter the UK’s two-decade-long climate consensus.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Sunak’s big claim was that the UK has “stumbled into a (net-zero) consensus about the future of the country that no one seems to be happy with”.