David King said: “This could be the worst possible time for the leadership of this country to simply fall behind. Wait until what? We have an energy crisis right now and we need good leadership. We need alert leadership, leadership that thinks about it – and that’s missing.” Johnson, who has vowed not to make major decisions for the remainder of his term, attended an inconclusive meeting of energy companies last week and is now on his second vacation since resigning last month. King told the Guardian: “He is the prime minister. He wanted to remain, so he must surrender as prime minister. There is no one else who can do that.” He called for higher taxes on energy companies, which he said have been raising energy prices since the invasion of Ukraine for a bonus, rather than investing or becoming more efficient. “They’re getting bigger and bigger profits because the prices are so high. This can only mean that they link their profits to price, not to the volume they offer,” he said. King – a former government chief scientist and UK climate envoy from 2000 to 2007, and as the government’s special climate representative from 2013 to 2017 he has been an adviser to prime ministers and foreign secretaries, including Johnson – said that valuable time was wasted while the government failed to act. Waiting several more weeks for a new Conservative leader to take the reins of government would only add to the problem, he said. “There will be extreme suffering in the lowest paid parts of our society,” King warned. “We need fiscal policies that help people in the lowest wage bracket manage the cost of energy.” He said insulating the home should also be a priority. “Home insulation is a huge benefit to individuals and the country at large. Home insulation programs have always been the focus of government for so long, although the benefits are huge.” Even starting now would help people across the country with bills, he said, adding: “It’s never too late – if you start now, we could see good progress before winter.” Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party, will announce new proposals on Monday on how to tackle the UK’s home insulation problem, while calling for the energy bill cap to be kept at the current £1,971, according to a report of the Observer on Sunday. 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. King was scathing about Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss’ emphasis on tax cuts to tackle the cost of living crisis, although he also hinted that further support could not be ruled out. Rishi Sunak, the other leadership hopeful, proposed reducing VAT on energy bills and providing support to bill payers. “The big beneficiaries of low taxation are people who can already afford higher energy prices,” he said. King also criticized the government for turning to increased oil and gas production in the North Sea to lower energy bills, a move he said would not mitigate high gas prices and curb high greenhouse gas emissions for decades. . “It’s completely the wrong time frame – it will take 10 or 20 years for new oil and gas projects [started now] to come online,” he warned. The Climate Crisis Advisory Group, an international coalition of scientists chaired by King, will release a report this week arguing that governments do not need to switch back to fossil fuels in response to rising gas prices and energy shortages . International cooperation, expanding investment in renewable energy sources as well as pursuing energy efficiency through insulating homes and industries would be enough to curb the energy crisis, the report says. Interest rate hikes should also be avoided, as doing so would risk a damaging recession. “The remaining global carbon budget of about 400 gigatonnes of CO2 simply does not allow for further expansion of fossil fuels,” the report says. “The fossil fuel rush is simply an unsustainable position and a big mistake.” Critics sometimes argue that renewable energy is variable and intermittent – but King says overhauling energy grids and diversifying into clean energy sources would solve that problem. “Offshore wind is very reliable, as the wind blows very much from the North Sea,” he added. Hydropower in some areas could be used to store energy in dams for release when the wind was low. Nuclear power can also play a role, in the UK and around the world, according to King. He said Germany should return to nuclear power, rather than reviving its coal-fired power plants. “I worry about the fact that the fossil fuel lobby has been surprisingly strong,” in the UK and other countries, King said. Ministers had again delayed a decision on a potential new coal mine in Cumbria, which King warned could be approved by the next prime minister on the “pretext” of energy security. In the US, major climate legislation was passed last week that will provide hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for key technologies, but because of pressure from the fossil fuel lobby it still contains sources for natural gas and oil production. “The power of the fossil fuel lobby has been such that the US has never been able to play a leading role in the climate negotiations,” King said.
