In an interview that was released on Saturday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to be “pragmatic and proportionate” about achieving net zero and supported proposals to allow fresh fossil fuel extraction off the coast of Britain.
Environmental activists accuse the British leader of retreating from green plans to appease voters concerned about their possible costs in the midst of the UK’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, and their criticism of the position is expected to increase.
With a general election set for next year, Sunak sought to draw a distinction between his government’s Conservatives and its main adversary Labour in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
Labour appears poised to regain power after more than a decade in opposition.
“I think it makes absolutely no sense, as the Labour Party is suggesting, to ban North Sea oil and gas,” Sunak told the Tory-supporting newspaper, referring to waters off Britain’s east coast.
“That is just going to weaken our energy security and strengthen the hands of dictators like (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin.
“But it’s also going to put at risk 200,000 jobs across something like 30 different sectors of the economy and also threaten £80 billion ($103 billion) worth of tax revenue.”
Sunak, who took over as leader in October of last year, stated that his strategy is to “support the UK’s energy industry” and seemed to imply that failing to fully utilize new UK oil and gas assets may result in “the lights going out” in Britain.
“Everybody sensible recognises that we will need those fossil fuels as part of the transition to net zero,” he argued.
