Allister Heath in the Telegraph is full of praise for Sunak’s watering down of the U.K.’s Net Zero measures. But the terrible truth is, he says, that even these mild changes may be unlawful – the PM needs to change the law.
The central problem is Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband’s subversive 2008 Climate Change Act. The original idea – a legally binding, 60% net reduction in emissions compared with 1990 levels by 2050 – was hardened to 80% during the process. In 2019, during the dying days of her calamitous premiership, Theresa May increased the legally binding reduction to 100% by 2050.
Supporters of the Act knew what they were doing: its legal-technocratic infrastructure was deliberately structured to prevent the sort of rearguard, common sense action now being advocated by Sunak. There isn’t just a 2050 deadline, but also five-year rolling carbon reduction targets that must be met by law. These “carbon budgets” must be agreed 12 years’ ahead of time, and accompanied by credible policies – although, scandalously, as the PM noted yesterday, they are not properly debated by MPs.
The Act created an extremely powerful quango, the Climate Change Committee, to “advise” the Government on where to set the budgets, and how exactly various sectors are squeezed to ensure they are met. The politicians have some room for manoeuvre, but not much.
The terrible truth is that Sunak is probably overstepping the mark. He has pressed the nuclear button: he has rejected the CCC’s advice and potentially torn up the fifth (2028-32) and sixth carbon budgets (2033-37). The latter was enshrined into law by Johnson in 2021. Sunak’s courage in defying this madness is remarkable, but he must now act strategically if he is to avoid being annihilated.
Green activists, corporate subsidy junkies and the rest are crying blue murder. They will claim – perhaps rightly, given the inane legislation – that the Government’s policies are unlawful. They will rush to their lawyers. The Left is already planning a raft of judicial reviews to prevent any airport expansion: the CCC has called for a temporary halt, and, longer-term, will surely demand that any increase in airport capacity (such as at Heathrow) be met by a reduction somewhere else (for example, by shutting Manchester Airport). This battle is a harbinger of things to come: the courts may well rule that the delay to phasing out the combustion engine is unlawful.
If Sunak wants to win, he will need to change the law – carbon budgets may need amending, requiring a Parliamentary vote. He may even need to amend the Climate Change Act itself. He will need to whip his MPs: he should learn from the Brexit battles of 2019, when Remainers who defied Johnson were thrown out of the party. If that fails, he will need to include a pledge to legislate for his relaxed deadlines in his 2024 manifesto.
Worth reading in full.
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I thought governments with a substantial majority could make, amend or repeal any laws they please,via three line whipping if necessary. Or won’t his handlers allow it?
When the governing party is a Balkanised quarrelsome rabble there IS no substantial majority for anything.
My money is on the “handlers” not allowing it or even using it to create the illusion of a revolt!
As is often remarked upon, the Conservative party isn’t very conservative and is full of Blairites. It’s extremely likely that were Rishi to, say, try and repeal the Climate Change Act with a three line whip, you’d get a huge portion of the party rebelling. Rishi himself is a Blairite of course, so no chance of that happening anyway.
The problem in this country is that there is no party that directly appeals to Red Wall voters, founded on patriotism, small ‘c’ social conservatism, and a strong public sector. That’s the kind of party that could do well, not Richard Tice’s party. I could vote for such a party even if I didn’t agree with the pro-public sector angle.
I’m hoping Clarkson will head up an equivalent of the Dutch ‘Farmer Citizen’ party. Although Clarkson is a remainer he’s clearly sound on many issues. He even made fun of the Covid theatre on one of the episodes of Clarkson’s farm.
Our salvation will not arrive via the ballot box.
Indeed we are a bloody long way from any suggestion of so-called “democracy.”
You know there is no democracy when you are threatened with jail for not getting a heat pump or smart meter.
What does “a strong public sector” mean?
Because we’ve already got a huge but utterly useless public sector.
Yes isn’t the NHS in the top 5 of government employees in the world (with over a million employees) together with the Chinese People’s Army, the Pentagon and India’s State Railway? All that taxpayer’s money!
Why have a Climate Change Act that will make no difference to global climate? Because it isn’t and never was about climate in the first place. But most readers here already know that. The task is to get a mostly brainwashed public to realise that. It would help slightly if the likes of GB News would stop saying things like “Climate Change is real”. That is a simplistic statement that fails to take into account the huge uncertainties and gives carte blanche to eco nut jobs to insist on the most harmful climate policies. They should also CEASE immediately from ever saying the words “climate emergency” unless they make it clear they are quoting climate alarmists. “Climate Emergency” is the language of politics not of science.
not so much just the “Red Wall” imho – more no party representing any proper working people (and disadvantaged marginalised non-working people) across the class and (so-called) race divides – no party for representative democracy – no party for truth – no party for fairness for all (including the middle classes!) no party for education no party for healthcare no party for freedom of movement no party against War no party for anyone except the rich their courtisans and some misguided well meaning feel-gooders
If Knicky Knacky wants to win an election – repeal, burn and bury the 2008 Climate Bollocks Act. I hate the Convict party (Rona fascism, 2/3 of a Brexit, Green fascist bullshit etc). But even people like myself would vote for the billionaire Davos boy, selected, not elected. Climate Fascism is one of the 5 great threats we face (Health Nazism, Agro-Food Corporatism, Endless Wars, Cultural Marxism). Dismantling one is all we can hope for from these corrupt sociopathological clowns.
one part of the problem being he / they don’t particularly care whether they win or not – they’ll still win either way – see for example the official worstest briefest UK Prime Minister Ever coming out refreshed strong and unaplogetic or the “Best Recent Prime Minister Ever” in the Western(?) World retiring through exhaustion then re-emerging with Sainthood Intact with a paid job for life to destroy actual democracy and promote global serfdom – or Mr Bojangles the clown still being given a platform to promote endless war notwithstanding his numerous disgraces
The next few week will tell us whether Ritchy Rich has the spine to confront the Quislings in his own party. There are at least a score of them who, like the Grieves and Soubreys of last time around, just have to go.
I understand that Joleyons ‘Good Law Project’ is first out the gate with a challenge. What they dont seem to understand is that it isn’t a good law that needs protecting. It is a terrible law and needs to be repealled forthwith.
I have champagne in the fridge in the hope that will I wake up to see Maugham’s obituary in the Times.
Cruel but fair
Ah, now I get it. Appear to throw the public a bone then row back on it claiming legal restrictions. ‘See, I tried to make things easier for you but I can’t coz rules’. We see you, Sunak.
Much like the non-stop influx of migrants then. You can’t send them to Rwanda, you can’t send them to Ascension Island, you can’t send them back where they came from ( I still don’t buy that. Course you can when it’s established fact that most are economic migrants, a.ka ‘free-loaders’, and are not fleeing persecution or war ), you can’t even send them to a flaming giant barge due to alleged Legionnaires, or some such bollocks, therefore you’re not stopping the boats at all then are you?? Sushi treats the British public like they’re complete spanners.
If the courts say that economic migrants can’t be sent to Rwanda but the government does it anyway what are the courts going to do apart from throw their toys out the pram and have a hissy fit? The government makes policy, needs to realise this and have the balls to stand up to activist judges.
It could of course be argued that it would be better to stand up to the French and tell them that if they don’t use their army to prevent the boats leaving Calais we’ll send in our army to patrol French beaches, and actually go through with it. The ball would then be in Macron’s court. Other than having a hissy fit what would he do?
The Army might work, but the SAS after the smugglers would stop the boats dead. Macron could hardly complain, could he?
My thoughts exactly.
I hope it will be challenged in the courts. The more publicity the better – keep it in the public mind. If The People then want change they can agitate for it and vote for it in 2024.
One of the lowest cost solutions to extricate ourselves out of the Net Zero nonsence would be for parliament to rigorously scrutinise and debate the science behind catastrophic man made climate change in an open forum. But he won’t do this, of course, as the whole shit show would unravel and the globalists would lose control and the loot from their most lucrative racket.
In reality it has already unraveled. They are now becoming frantic with the lies!
The law needs changing. It’s not possible to do any of this until at least the end of the century. In 2010, 2050 was a nice long 40 years away. Now it’s just 27 and the tyranny is biting. Make a new Act of Parliament moving things to 2100. Immediately invest the money that would have been wasted on wind farms and the like into a grid of nuclear stations and massively boost the pittance being given to fusion research (which has been deliberately hobbled, as it will bring down the hegemonies controlling oil and gas.)
The CCC need to be destroyed.
I can’t see this bunch of losers doing anything though. The court cases will happen, the announcements will be shot down and Sunak can shrug and say ‘Hey! I tried!’ There needs to be a Climate Change Act 2023 fast-tracked and voted on in the next couple of weeks.
Fusion was 50 years away 50 years ago, and will be 50 years away in 50 years time …..
They say ’30 years away’ usually, but that’s always been deliberate. It’s perfectly achievable with proper investment, but has been deliberately underfunded to an absurd degree, because the entire global economy would utterly change if we had cheap, clean, easily-created energy.
The energy-based economy as been built massively on debt and that would collapse overnight. Imagine a bunch of fusion reactors come online in one night, powering the entire UK cheaply and easily. EDF, Scottish Power, nPower and all the other companies would die. If BA announced a bunch of fusion-powered aeroplanes; the aviation fuel industry would fall apart. Transport would be able to become slingshot orbital-based: London to Sydney in 45 minutes.
There would be no place for the current technocracy and the giant energy companies. The current green movement, with its useless energy production methods, is about keeping us poor, afraid and under control. The idea that we could be free using genuinely clean energy terrifies them, because fusion would power entrepreneurialism on a vast scale when the greens want a global communist dictatorship.
No need for fusion. Fossil fuels are cheap and plentiful and have very few downsides.
They aren’t good enough for orbital and extra-orbital travel. Fusion is a next step to take us back and forth to the Moon, asteroid belt and Mars and run clean power on a vast scale. I’m fine with finding better energy sources that avoid mining on the Earth.
We need to be thinking about making humans a multi-world race, rather than trying to depopulate the world. There’s plenty of real pollution that is an issue. It just isn’t carbon dioxide, which is a scam.
“They aren’t good enough for orbital and extra-orbital travel.”
That is not a concern at the moment. Given the govt would rather we travelled nowhere at all, and certainly not using an internal combustion engine.
Isn’t the essential problem that everywhere else is far, far, far less habitable than Antarctica?
Which only has a few hundred people in research bases that can be easily reached.
You are correct. The problem is a bit of physics called magnetohydrodynamics. You can see it action on the chaotic surface of the sun. A gas plasma is simply completely unstable and cannot be confined by magnetic fiels because it has huge unstable fields of its own. The whole thing is a scientific “jobs for the boys (scientists who know these facts)” because they will still be paid whatever progress 9or lack of it ) is made.
As long as Sunak stipulates that Net Zero is a thing that we must get to otherwise we’re doomed, that it’s the “answer” to the non-existent climate catastrophe he has very little chance of winning in the courts. He’s done NOTHING with this speech as far as I am concerned.
The only way the Net Zero insanity is squashed is by showing people that spending trillions on the policy will achieve exactly nothing, climate-wise, but that it WILL cause massive hardship and death worldwide..
“the policy will achieve exactly nothing, climate-wise, but that it WILL cause massive hardship and death worldwide..”
Which is exactly what net zero is all about. Plus it provides for a massive transfer of wealth from the little people to the “elites” as they like to call themselves.
“The Terrible Truth is That Even Sunak’s Mild Net Zero Relaxation May Be Unlawful”
Since when did breaking the law matter to this administration?
As I explained yesterday Hux, this Net Zero law has no standing courtesy of treason committed by QE2 in 2001.
Getting that information into the wider public domain is key but nigh on impossible as the evil government, head of state & their handlers really don’t want to admit that they’ve been committing fraud via council tax, other tax changes etc for the past 22 years.
Since when have the politicos been honest??
I was going to reference this fact BB in the post just made. The content will make clear why I didn’t.
Since when did breaking the law matter to any government post 2001?
Amended your statement to make it even more accurate
Thanks to BB for the prompt.
As she kindly explained to me yesterday when Brenda (Queen Lizzie) signed the Lisbon Treaty in 2001 – PM TB – she committed an Act of treason as she had been warned by a Committee of 25 Barons that she was giving away our sovereignty and under the terms of Magna Carta she was not at liberty to do so. As the titular head of state the monarchy became invalid and remains invalid to this day. All governments since 2001, given that they derive their legal authority from the Crown are therefore illegal and so is every law that has supposedly been placed on the statute books.
Why on earth this has not been challenged at the highest level I have no idea.
(I do hope my interpretation is correct BB. Please amend / correct as you see fit).
For those commentators thinking that this net zero 2050 or any other date for that matter can be sorted by changing the law just accept that such directions imply a large degree of acquiescence with the premise of Net Zero.
Net Zero has nothing to do with saving the planet because mankind cannot “save” the planet although there is NO evidence that the planet is in any immediate danger from anything.
As I have repeatedly stated, everything occurring since March 2020 has as its sole aim depopulation. We all know that EV’s cannot replace ICE vehicles. We know there is no attempt to upgrade the national electricity grid because TPTB have decided it is not necessary – we won’t have cars and or we won’t be here.
The reason for the apparent row back is probably to provide a pressure release and to buy time.
Our old way of life has gone for good. We are at war and at some point we will all have to become Blade Runners if we wish to retain any semblance of freedom. Our war must slowly move from defiance and noncompliance to outright guerrilla tactics.
Ignore the minutiae.
It is people that need saved not the planet. The eco socialist pretend to save the planet people taking control of the worlds wealth and resources are the ones that need saved. By “saved” I mean “imprisoned” for imposing their pseudo scientific fraud on us all.
Or if they want a simple yes/no modification they could go for a referendum – although that could open a pandora’s box re other matters.
The CP must be delusional if they think the public are “with them” on Net Zero. The whole programme is for the benefit of the political eliote and its allies.
They live in the Westminster bubble. As an old colleague of mine said “London is a foreign country” (compared with most of England).
Surely it should say illegal rather than unlawful. This is about legislation and hence is a legal matter. Unlawful would be about breaking the natural law/constitution/fundamental rights. Something can be legal, but unlawful, and visa versa.
The Pseudo Scientific fraud and it’s Scorched Earth Policy of NET ZERO. ———————-The Eco Socialist grip on our standard of living and wallets is tight. It is like a pit bull on your balls. There is only one way to get that brute off you and that is to SHOOT IT. We must shoot NET ZERO, preferably with machine guns so it has no chance to ever rise up again.