UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has written an op-ed piece in The Sun promising “I will not sacrifice Great British industry to the drum-banging, finger-wagging Net Zero extremists”
Which means he’s willing to sacrifice all the industry to appease the fossil fuels industry.
The issue with fighting climate change is that it’s a game of chicken between all the countries. If the UK goes all out and eliminates all emissions (at the cost of some portion of its economy) but every other country stays the course, then climate change just carries on and the UK’s sacrifice is in vain.
Similarly, if every other country in the world buckles down and stops climate change but the UK carries on, the UK ends up ahead. This means there is a double disincentive to cooperate on climate change.
Canada is going through this issue right now. The Liberal government has gone forward with carbon taxes and now these policies have become deeply unpopular. The Liberal party is now staring down the barrel of a potentially historic defeat in the upcoming election next year.