Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been asked next to nothing about their plans for dealing with the climate emergency in all their debates and efforts so far – and they haven’t made it a top campaign issue themselves. Their main wisdom on the subject of the drought is to alert the water companies that they need to fix the leaks, to avoid the need for households to face a pipe ban. While both are committed to net zero, neither has spoken about the climate crisis with much passion or interest. Sunak has often branded his young daughters as the climate experts at home – surely an embarrassing thing for a former chancellor to admit – and he does not like the idea of more onshore wind turbines. It was once seen by environmentally conscious Tories as the biggest risk to the government’s climate ambitions, as it was believed to be holding back ambitious plans to transform the UK’s energy needs due to cost. However, signs are that Truss, a former environment secretary, could be even less committed to net zero. Its response to rising energy costs, exacerbated by extreme winter weather caused by climate collapse, is to remove green levies from household and business bills. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. It is not yet clear whether he would pay for them instead of general taxation or repeal initiatives to insulate homes and subsidize renewables altogether. In a conflict, he suggested that net zero was a problem for business, not government. He also cut funding for solar farms while he was environment secretary, branding them a “blight on the landscape” and in a pursuit vowed to remove their “soils” from fields. At the same time, he supports fracking – popular in theory with campaigners and Tory MPs, but not if it is planned for their own area. Strangely, Chris Skidmore, Tory MP and founder of the Tories’ Net Zero Support Group, has switched sides from Sunak to Truss in recent days, but cited the former chancellor’s reversals as the reason. Two Tory MPs – Vicky Ford and Simon Clarke – also cited Truss’ support of Cop26 as a reason for their support. But Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, recalled her meeting with Truss at the climate crisis summit in Glasgow and said the main thing he wanted to discuss was how he could get into Vogue. Among Tory MPs, those opposed to net zero policies – such as Steve Baker, a Truss supporter – have sniffed an opportunity to gain back ground. One of Truss’ high-profile backers, Lord Frost, said last week there was no evidence of a climate “emergency” and urged the next prime minister to move away from “medieval technology” such as wind power. To be fair, those challenging the candidates haven’t given much airtime to the issue. Open Democracy estimated that just two minutes of an hour of interviews on the first heat day were devoted to the climate. But none of the candidates wanted to present themselves as a staunch supporter of the fight against climate catastrophe. A lukewarm climate stance may win cheers in prosecutions, and even sway some Tories, but polls tell a different story for voters across the spectrum, including many Conservatives and voters with the country deeply worried that politicians are not doing enough.
