Cost is still testing net zero support
PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak’s ‘watering down’ of the UK’s net zero commitments appear to epitomise the kind of weak populism we expect from a fragile government still in the middle of a long-lasting cost-of-living crisis. And it so nearly happened here too.
Although the consumer may have some immediate sympathy for the Prime Minister’s move – they can delay that boiler switchover and their next new car does not have to be an electric one, thereby saving money – but it’s a move that has angered every part of the net zero pathway industry, removing the certainty they were feeding off.
It talks to the argument that the States was poised to have, and ultimately avoided, about financing the journey to net zero. The basic requirement is to understand that there is not a ‘no cost’ option for the energy transition and pursuit of net zero. The argument is that doing the right thing will ultimately be cheaper for the public – but the cheap and easy narrative is different.
It was spectacularly good, or bad, timing, however you wish to see it, as Guernsey Finance’s Sustainable Finance Week opened yesterday in the island, with off-island delegates and speakers talking about funding the green transition.
One speaker said: ‘There’s no time better than now to tackle climate change. We know times are quite difficult, but we need to drive change and continue conversations.’