When Boris Johnson nailed the Tories’ environmental colours to the mast a few years ago, he probably gained votes from a few waverers. Was it worth it? Almost certainly not. The point he missed was that promises of that sort regularly come back to bite the people that make them. The commitment to net zero by 2050 and no fossil fuel-powered cars after 2035 is a case in point.
This pledge made little account of whether or not the technology will actually be up to scratch by then. Nor did it properly consider the question of if we can afford it, or indeed have assured access to the raw materials necessary to apply it. Yet still the political green lobby continues to exercise a disproportionate influence over the government. Last year, the Tories were bounced into slamming the brakes on fracking, despite the increasing need for varied sources of home-grown energy.
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