[Op-Ed] Rishi Sunak’s Environmental Track Record is Confusing and Dangerous

Rishi Sunak takes the stage at a Conservative Party gathering in August. Photo: Hannah Mckay / Reuters

Following Liz Truss’ disastrous budget collapse and subsequent resignation, Rishi Sunak is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the head of the Conservative Party. Sunak will be the United Kingdom’s third prime minister of 2022 and the country’s first prime minister of color, but faces uncertain waters as his premiership begins. Among the most pressing issues for Sunak will be climate policy, however his science policy record seems poised to set back environmental and health progress in the United Kingdom.

Sunak’s questionable climate views present a contradiction from the very start. Sunak has said that he discusses climate issues frequently with his family. Sunak’s two young children will inherit the planet that he helps manage, and it will be his decisions that will help determine if his children will grow up with clean air and a healthy planet, or with deadly heat waves every summer.

In August, Sunak was accused of driving for deregulations that would allow for an increase in oil production in the North Sea, drawing condemnation from groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. According to Sunak’s campaign team, the move was meant to decrease energy costs for the coming winter. Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth called Sunak’s deregulation “incompatible” with creating a healthy ecosystem.

While serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson, Sunak’s budgets decreased taxes on transportation, did not provide funds to update home insulation, and failed to meet government-set climate goals. More recently, Sunak made the decision to personally withdraw from the upcoming COP27 conference in Cairo, Egypt, and will instead be represented by other British officials.

Sunak’s voting record shows a clear track record of anti-environment votes. Of the past four major parliamentary votes regarding bills pertinent to preventing climate change, Sunak was absent for all of them. Of the past 20 major climate votes in Parliament, Sunak was either absent for or voted against all of them.

But Sunak has shown some commitment to environmental issues, such as signing the Conservative Environment Network’s pledge of bringing the United Kingdom to net zero emissions by 2050. During his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak oversaw a Treasury department Net Zero Review, an important analytical report to understand Britain’s position in the global climate movement. Furthermore, Sunak announced plans to reduce the value added tax (VAT) on solar panel installations, but this move came late in his failed Summer premiership bid. Sunak’s critics blasted the move and implied that his previous refusal to decrease the tax made him childish.

Rishi Sunak gives a speech on Oct. 25. Photo: Hannah Mckay / Reuters

What makes Sunak’s position on climate issues so dangerous is his own confusion. Sunak will seemingly neither commit to falling completely in the Conservative Party line of anti-climate politics, nor will he take the necessary steps to help the United Kingdom meet the climate targets that he helped establish as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom Committee on Climate Change, an advisory body to the government, warned that the nation is at risk of failing to meet its 2035 clean electricity goal. 

Sunak’s self-proclaimed focus on “depressing domestic issues” misses the larger point–climate change will affect everyone, and it will become his domestic issue if he does not lead his government in a way that helps combat climate change. By the middle of August, the United Kingdom had experienced 500 more forest fires in 2022 than it had in all of 2021. More than 3,000 citizens passed away due to the extreme heatwaves the country experienced over the summer. According to the Imperial College London, the heatwaves were made at least 10 times worse due to the effects of climate change.

Sunak’s commitment to protecting the environment appears dubious at best. For all the discussions about climate change at home, for all the decreases in the VAT on solar panel installations, and for all the Net Zero reviews that the Treasury does, Sunak must do more if he seeks to avoid the death of his citizens due to climate change. He must do more to stop his country from burning. To protect the planet and its citizens, Sunak must act.