Rishi Sunak is right to reconsider his green pledges

The old carmakers were slow to realise the potential of electric cars and didn’t innovate. So Elon Musk, an internet tycoon, bought Tesla and stole a march on an entire industry. The internal combustion cohort then rushed to catch up: Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Ford all committed to go electric-only by 2030. The problem is that electric cars are expensive, so most drivers still prefer cheaper petrol ones. Ministers came up with a plan to deny people the choice, to pass laws that would ban the sale of new petrol-based cars.

This always was a conspiracy against the public, justified on very thin environmental arguments. For the average taxpaying driver, facing an unprecedented crunch in living standards, it threatened to make life more difficult still. Gary Smith, leader of the GMB trade union, spoke last week about how the old environmental agenda has ‘decimated’ working-class communities. The promised ‘green jobs’ have not yet materialised. As ‘net zero’ deadlines approach, country after country has realised they cannot carry public consent. A new pragmatism is needed.

Rishi Sunak this week laid out a different, moderate and credible path. His decision to scrap the 2030 petrol car ban – which was never properly thought-out – comes after similar moves in European countries. The pain it would have inflicted on lower-income households was not worth the environmental gain. That such a calculation is being made at all will enrage certain lobbyists and corporate interests. The chief executives at Ford are furious: they will face greater competition. But a prime minister’s job is to serve the public – and this is not done by clinging to unworkable targets.

Until now, the debate about green targets has had a depressingly shrill tone: even university professors would end up saying that either we do this ‘or we fry’.