Politicians must lead on the climate emergency – not wilt in the face of ‘hostile’ public opinion

To complement the now daily reports on our television screens about wildfires in Europe, this week has brought further scientific evidence about the impact of climate change.

The World Meteorological Organisation warned on Thursday that July is likely to be the hottest month on record – in 120,000 years. It said extreme weather events ranging from droughts to large-scale flooding are on the rise in Asia, the world’s most impacted region – and bound to affect food security and ecosystems. Some 81 weather, climate and water-related disasters were recorded throughout the continent last year, affecting more than 50 million people and costing more than 5,000 lives.

While the UK might have escaped the fires raging on the continent this summer, its luck might not last. In a separate report, the UK’s Meteorological Office warned that last year’s record temperatures, which saw a 40C heatwave, were “a sign of things to come”. By the end of the century, 40C heatwaves would be likely to occur every 15 years or, in a worst-case scenario, every three years.

Remarkably, these two reports were published in the week when the UK government began to dilute its measures to meet its legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is regrettable that ministers seem more interested in grabbing what they view as a possible lifeline offered by the Conservatives’ unexpected victory in last week’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. Never mind that London mayor Sadiq Khan’s proposed extension of the capital’s ultra-low emission zone is needed to reduce air pollution rather than to minimise climate change – Rishi Sunak needs all the ammunition he can muster against a reformed Labour Party at next year’s general election and detects a favourable new dividing line between the Tories and the opposition.

Energy efficiency standards for private landlords will be delayed, as will reforms to make manufacturers meet the cost of collecting and recycling packaging. The Tories will doubtless make more similar moves in the election run-up; they might delay the phasing out of gas boilers in homes. Right-wing Tories, who view opposing net zero measures as their next crusade after Brexit, are pressing for a delay to the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars due in 2030. Although ministers insist the target remains, the government sent decidedly mixed signals and had five different positions this week. It seems there might be some exemptions.

While Mr Sunak insists he remains committed to the net zero goal, he cannot will the ends without the means. It is obvious that his heart is not in it, as the former environment minister Lord Goldsmith has argued.

Climate change was conspicuously absent from the five pledges the prime minister made in January. He has not devoted a speech to the issue and his limited utterances normally involve a tetchy defence of the UK’s record so far, while trying to make a tenuous link between Just Stop Oil and Labour.

The UK did make a good start but, as the government’s advisers, the Climate Change Committee, warned last month, is now in danger of going backwards. “Our confidence in the UK meeting its medium-term targets has decreased in the past year,” it said, adding that they were being missed on almost every front.

That was before the government’s worrying response to the Uxbridge by-election, so alarm bells are now ringing. Chris Stark, the committee’s chief executive, is right to warn that a vacuum of political leadership on climate change allows doubters to fill it with a debate about how difficult the action needed to tackle it is.

It would be disastrous if, for narrow, short-term reasons, the Tories end the bipartisan approach on how the UK can help to save the planet. But Labour should not take fright at Mr Sunak’s crude pre-election offensive. There is a danger that Keir Starmer’s party also learns the wrong lesson from Uxbridge. Labour has already delayed its plans to spend £28bn a year on green investment until the second half of a five-year parliament and should not be pressured into any further retreats.

Politicians of all hues should lead on the climate emergency rather than follow what they wrongly perceive as hostile public opinion. Of course, they need to take people with them and must ensure low-income families do not face unreasonable costs. But they must also make the positive case that investment in renewables will boost the economy and reduce energy bills, and remind people that the cost of inaction would be infinitely greater.