Ignore the rhetoric: the UK government still fails to grasp the climate crisis | Chris Venables

Boris Johnson needs a coherent approach to meeting green targets that goes beyond Cop26It's been a rollercoaster couple of years for anyone interested in the future of the planet. From thinking we'd forever shout from the sidelines at politicians who'd never listen, to 4 million of us, spurred on by schoolchildren, taking to the streets across the world to demand climate action. Then a pandemic that has reminded us how fragile and interwoven with nature our global communal life can be. And now to a government that has pledged to "build back greener" - putting the climate crisis front and centre of its story. But how far should we trust Boris Johnson's ambitions for Cop26, dubbed the "green games", this year? Well, in this case, it's the raw data we should look to - and it tells a deeply alarming story.Green Alliance's latest tracker of government climate policy shows that, following a decade of hard-won carbon reductions (which should rightly be celebrated), unless there's a serious step-change in climate action, the UK's emissions may start to creep up again. It takes time for policy to take effect and, even on a generous reading of recent government initiatives, the UK's greenhouse gas emissions will still be nearly 40% higher in 2030 than where we need them to be to give us the best chance of meeting the legally binding 2050 net-zero target. In essence, the data shows that the UK has been coasting for a while, living off the benefits of its highly successful decision in 2015 to kick coal off the electricity grid. But power is just one of many sectors that make up the loud thrum of the country's economy, all with climate impacts. Every policy to a degree now will be shaped by concerns around climate change, and the hard truth is that the prime minister needs the unreserved support of all his cabinet colleagues to meet his green ambitions. Continue reading...