HERO TO NET ZERO: Boris Johnson heads toward the COP26 summit The issue Downing Street hoping to have made Britain the world leader on tackling climate change, after unveiling a Net Zero Strategy that was prais by some experts as being the most comprehensive and ambitious plan of any major country. is that while that may be true thanks to the generally low bar set by the rest of the world, it doesn’t necessarily gambling database mean the roadmap to a carbon neutral U.K. is going to be enough to adequately deal with its emissions, let alone convince the U.S., the EU, Russia and China to follow suit. The fallout from yesterday’s announcement sees the business department sparring with the Treasury, while
Tory MPs and critics are split between those who The issue Downing Street
think much more radical policies than a few thousand heat pumps are requir, and those going spare over the blank check leaving a vast black hole in the finances of both the country and homeowners — inevitably landing Britons with a giant tax bill.
Let’s start with the positive news for the government: Ministers and officials will be buoy by the reaction of some of the wonk world to its epic document dump. Tim Lord, net zero boffin at the Tony Blair Institute, calls it a “serious piece whatsapp filter of work” that “means the U.K. can meaningfully claim to have the most comprehensive, whole-economy net zero strategy in the world.” He reckons “the level of ambition looks about right” and hails the BEIS officials who drew most of it up, although he says “there’s a lot more detail ne as we move to implementation.”
Also feeling chipper
Is the Resolution Foundation’s Torsten Bell, who says “it’s a triumph today to why productivity matters see the cross party consensus on the net zero goal/timing/broad path … If you’d told me five years back we’d get here I wouldn’t have believ you. And the contrast with the U.S., where a single Republican election win will derail things, is huge.” Now for the less triumphant news for No.