Britain needs to explain PM’s green shift, says Australia’s high commissioner

Manchester: Australia’s top diplomat in London, Stephen Smith, says Britain needs to explain to the international community that it is not retreating from net zero, despite rolling back some climate mitigation measures including the adoption of electric vehicles.

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was delaying the mandatory take-up of electric vehicles until 2035, in line with the European Union, as well as delaying the phasing out of gas boilers.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.Credit: Getty

The move has buoyed previously gloomy Tory MPs and the prime minister’s own standing in the polls, amid expectations that the Conservatives are on course to lose to Labour when the election is held sometime before the end of January 2025.

But Smith said the election result was no “foregone conclusion” because Sunak had done a good job of stabilising government.

“Whilst there seems to be a gap in the polls, there is still volatility, so I don’t think anyone can complacently assume that there will automatically be a change of government,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the Conservative party conference under way in Manchester.

Smith said voters would have their say on Sunak’s new climate positions at the ballot box but the changes would not stop Australia’s work with the UK on transitioning to clean energy.

A customer places a charger into a vehicle at a Shell Recharge electric vehicle charging hub in London.Credit: Bloomberg

“They’ve tweaked some domestic programs as they impact upon consumers and any government is entitled to do that,” he said.

“People will have their views. The key thing for the UK government is to make the point globally that they haven’t retreated from any of their overall obligations.”

Britain has legislated its 2050 net zero target and remains on track to cut its carbon emissions by 68 per cent by the end of this decade, which is well above Australia’s 48 per cent pledge for 2030.

Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith.Credit: Domenico Pugliese

But Sunak’s positioning is in stark contrast to that of Boris Johnson, who as prime minister led global talks in Glasgow at COP26 in 2021 and pressured the former Coalition government led by Scott Morrison to sign up to net zero.

Smith said there was a risk to the UK’s green credentials if the new position was left unexplained.

“I think it is important that the UK make the point, not just to Australia but to other partners in the global community that ‘we, the UK, have not retreated from any of our forward-leaning positions – we’re tweaking a range of programs’, but in our view, the UK’s view, they won’t have an impact on our ultimate ambition or our ultimate goal.

“I think it is important that [the] UK articulates that, and I’m confident Secretary [Claire] Coutinho and other ministers will do precisely that, particularly when they attend COP in the near future.”

Smith spoke on a panel about AUKUS for the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange alongside its chair former Australian high commissioner Alexander Downer, whose audience included George Brandis, Smith’s immediate predecessor in Australia House.

Smith said the submarine program was safe regardless of which side of politics was in power in the UK.

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