Sunak has ‘set Britain back’ on net zero, says UK’s climate adviser

Rishi Sunak has given up Britain’s reputation as a world leader in the fight against the climate crisis and has “set us back” by failing to prioritise the issue in the way his predecessors in No 10 did, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Sunak announced last autumn that he was moving back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years, as part of a wider dilution of climate policies.

At the time, the Tories were aiming to create a dividing line with Labour after their victory in the Uxbridge byelection, which largely came as a result of their opposition to London’s ultra low emission zone.

Photograph: Climate Change Committee/PA“It was presented to the country as a step back from going too fast on this transition,” Stark told the BBC.

Stark said significant progress had been made towards net zero and praised Theresa May and Boris Johnson for their commitment to the target.

The overall message that other parts of the world took from it is that the UK is less ambitious on climate than it once was, and that is extremely hard to recover.”