AIBU to think that the Tories are utterly wicked to drop net zero?

[Upsizer]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/rishi-sunak-planning-drop-net-zero-policies-pre-election-challenge-labour

I think this is genuinely wicked but I guess it was inevitable with the easiness of drumming up a culture war over environmental issues to win votes. Environment is the new Brexit.

Fighting climate change is going to cost all of us thousands of pounds. So we won’t do it - to get votes.

Our children will live on an island suffering extremes of heat and fighting off refugees from uninhabitable parts of the world.

But it will save us some cash I guess.

AIBU to think this is wicked?

why pointless ?

I’m ignoring all the other shit in your list but keen to understand what’s pointless about it ?

I was going to say pretty much this.

And by the way, why do we need to be world leaders on it? Whatever it is. There are some serious delusions of grandeur about UK’s place in the world. No one cares about what the UK does or says.

Watch a Chinese official roast Andrew Marr about UK overestimating its role and impact.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/china-drag-uk-trade-points-lbc-andrew-marr_uk_650178a1e4b034d7e74176ad/

Not only does 1% of UK’s global emissions share make any difference to the climate, no one actually cares about us ‘leading’ on it.

Why do people say that as though it's extraordinarily good? There are 195 countries in the world. What % do you think we should be emitting?

That is how you do consumption based CO2 emissions on the global scale otherwise everything that is trade goods gets counted twice,

Once against country that produces and then exports the trade items and
Again against country that imports and then consumes the trade items.

So while we pick up the CO2 of everything we import from other countries, those countries pick up the CO2 of everything they import from us.

Because if all countries with 5% or less behaved like that, we’d be failing to tackle half of our global emissions.

The saddest thing is that past Tory plans to cut net zero have added hundreds to our energy bills.

They they use cost of living to cut them further!

And people foolishly believe them

We should be investing in renewables and leading the world on thus. That's where profit and cuts to the cost of living lie

That's so patronising. Most British people actually care about Net Zero. I've not known a more corrupt government in the UK than this one, so their sudden cry against wealthy elites would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting.

Because there is a huge real opportunity here so for once we could actually fulfill the promise.

If this was true India and China's would be lower. Or is everyone quoting different stats to suit the narrative

Or do they not include per capita? Which would be grossly misleading

What opportunity? 1% makes no difference. And no one cares what the UK does.

We have fulfilled promises to cut CO2 and we are a global leader in terms of how much we have cut our CO2 both total amounts and on a per capita basis.

We are so far ahead of the big polluters, that we can focus on other environmental issues and ease up a bit on net zero.

The tories are wicked? So what are you all doing pray tell?!

Have you all dropped your cars? Mercy killed your pets? (Pet food trade is hugely polluting).

Not had any children?

Come on what have you all done?

They are virtually signalling hot air. That takes some serious straining of sinews, doncha no?

I met a government climate minister last week. No shit. He sees the opportunity for a renaissance of manufacturing in the UK building the wind turbines, the direct air capture machinery, the carbon capture and storage machinery. This requires steel and engineering, technology, innovation - things the UK has excelled at. Creating the new infrastructure for a post fossil fuel world is a great opportunity, and it’s disappointing to throw that away and watch others soar into the lead.

Yes, everytime he says he’s doing stuff for poor put upon ‘hardworking families’ when it was his government that made them poorer, I get the rage. Brexit (he was a big driver in this), PPE scandal (has Michelle Mone paid back a penny yet?!) and the infrastructure is falling apart because the county is brassic due to him. He was shit a chancellor and is a shit PM with bad advisors.

They haven't dropped it, why are you making an irresponsible thread saying so.

They are reportedly going to extend the time frame in which it will be achieved from 2030 to potentially 2035. An extra 5yrs but again this hasn't been 100% announced.

I think they are right to extend it to allow the infrastructure to be ready and for people to be able to afford to make the changes. I have had to change my car for ulez. No way could I then afford to update my heating system or anything else required without help but I wont get any help because I don't receive benefits.

Its sensible to say with cost of living etc lets just extend the timeline a bit and still work towards achieving it without giving people more pain.

🙄

Why would dropping some targets affect this though? The un sdg still exist, the market is there.

U.K. is one of top “high performer” countries. No one is in the “very high performer” bracket yet.
https://ccpi.org/

The most frustrating argument of all is 'well I'm not doing more until others do'.

The consumerism and waste in this country is still shamefully high. Plus we have the opportunity to be world leaders in tidal and wave energy.

The Tories as usual have completely failed on this: morally, economically, and politically.

In other news, Port Talbot steel works moving away from blast furnaces to produce ‘green’ steel, with a £500m to line the pockets of Tara steel, while 3k jobs will be lost. And we will produce less steel.

So let’s see how the green revolution for industry is working out that this learned government climate minister quoted you. Taxpayer funds £500m and sees 3k jobs lost in the process and we produce less home grown steel and import more Chinese steel.

Sometimes it helps to look at the facts beyond the soundbites to find the truth.

YANBU
It is absolutely wicked, as anyone with kids should be feeling right now.

Perversely, I think this decision by Sunak today will be a vote loser, rather than winner.

It’s a sign of weakness and desperation for votes at any cost.

Not sure if the irony was intentional in this post.