Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson’s government has said it will require all vehicles in the UK to be “zero-emissions capable” by 2035, as ministers set out the plan for achieving their 2050 net zero target.The long-awaited Net Zero Strategy document published on Tuesday has detailed the government’s plan for Britain to be entirely powered entirely by clean electricity by 2035.The government also promised to make a final investment decision on the building of a new, large-scale nuclear power plant by the end of the current parliament.But opposition parties and campaigners said the plan was a “massive letdown” which failed to meet the scale of the crisis – accusing the government of coming up with only “half-hearted” policies.“This document is more like a pick and mix than the substantial meal we need to reach net zero,” said Greenpeace UK’s Rebecca Newsom – pointing to “the lack of concrete plans to deliver renewables at scale … or a firm commitment to end new oil and gas licences”.The prime minister claimed his strategy for achieving net zero emissions by 2050 could be achieved without sacrifice, claiming: “We can build back greener without so much as a hair shirt in sight.”Johnson said that by 2050 “our cars will be electric gliding silently around our cities, our planes will be zero emission allowing us to fly guilt-free, and our homes will be heated by cheap reliable power”.The government promised a “a zero-emission vehicle mandate” and committed £620m for zero-emission vehicle grants and more infrastructure for electric vehicles in residential areas.The strategy states: “This will deliver on our 2030 commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, and 2035 commitment that all cars must be fully zero emissions capable.”Ministers pledged to set firm targets for a percentage of manufacturers’ new vehicles to be zero emission each year from 2024.The government also promised to “fully decarbonise” the UK’s power system by 2035, with a pledge to finalise investment in a new nuclear plant and deliver four carbon capture usage and storage clusters by 2030.Ministers will also launch a £120m pound “future nuclear enabling fund” aimed at boosting new technologies, including small modular reactors.Mr Johnson’s government said its aim is to achieve 40GW of offshore wind and deliver 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030, whilst halving emissions from oil and gas.Business minister Greg Hands said the strategy showed the government’s commitment to take “decisive action” to reach the target ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.Speaking in the Commons, Mr Hands said the push towards to cleaner sources of energy will help reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels and “bring down costs down the line” for consumers.But Labour said the plan “falls short” of action need to deal with the climate crisis. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said: “While there is modest short-term investment, there’s nothing like the commitment we believe is required.”Under Heat and Building Strategy plans released overnight, some people will be able to £5,000 grants to replace their boilers with green heat pumps. But just 90,000 of the UK’s 22 million gas-heated households will benefit in a plan branded “inadequate” by environmentalists.Labour accused chancellor Rishi Sunak of thwarting the kind of government spending needed to meet the scale of the climate emergency. “The chancellor’s fingerprints are all over these documents and not in a good way,” said Mr Miliband.Called for a “proper” plan to retrofit home, Miliband said “there is not even a replacement for the ill-fated green home grant for homeowners” in the government’s plan. The senior Labour MP asked: “Where the long-term retrofit plan is?”The government said it is considering ways to require mortgage lenders to disclose details about the energy performance of homes – leading to fears that first-time buyers could find it harder to get on the ladder without committing to upgrades.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the net zero strategy ignored the “elephant in the room” by failing to include any measures to stop investment in fossil fuel industries through the City of London.The TUC condemned the strategy as a “huge let down, claiming it left a “yawning gap” in the investment needed to help British industry reach net zero.The union’s general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government has failed to implement many of the main recommendations of its own green jobs taskforce – just two weeks before it hosts the UN climate change conference.”Prof Jim Watson, professor of energy policy at the UCL Institute of Sustainable Resources, said the government’s strategy document was a “step in the right direction” – but predicted more commitments would be needed.“It isn’t enough, of course. Funding for low carbon heating is modest, and there is too little focus on how buildings will be made more efficient, for example,” he said. “So it will need to be followed up by a ratcheting up of ambitions in the coming months and years.”The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the independent body advising the government, said the net zero strategy amounted to a “significant step forward”.Chris Stark, the CCC’s chief executive: “We didn’t have a plan before, now we do … It provides much more clarity about what lies ahead for businesses and individuals and the key actions required in the coming decades.”Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Johnson announced nearly £10bn pounds of private investment commitments in green projects at a summit in London.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) claimed new regulations and investment plans committed by the private sector would support up to 440,000 new jobs by 2030.The Treasury said new taxes will probably be needed to compensate for the loss of revenues from its shift away from fossil fuels which will hit the government’s income that is currently raised by fuel duty.The government “may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue” rather than relying on increased borrowing, said the Treasury’s net zero review. 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The Maltese government on Tuesday responded to a critical European human rights evaluation by vowing to soon propose new legislation to better protect journalists in the wake of the 2017 assassination of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia The government said it was consulting with national and international organizations about possible reforms and would present proposed legislation to parliament “in the near future.”The government was responding to a preliminary report from the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, who made a host of recommendations to better protect the rights of women, journalists and migrants after a recent visit to the Mediterranean island nation.Mijatovic called for the government to implement as “a top priority” the recommendations of a public inquiry which found that the Maltese state “has to bear responsibility” for Caruana Galizia’s murder because of the culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government.The government hasn’t identified which of the inquiry’s recommendation it plans to implement. But among other things, the inquiry called for a formal police unit to identify which people, not just journalists, could be exposed to serious attacks that could escalate to physical violence. The unit would serve as immediate point of contact for journalists so they could feel safe and protected while doing their jobs.Caruana Galizia was killed on Oct. 16, 2017 when a powerful car bomb exploded as she was driving near her home. She had been trying to unearth links between financial dealings indicated by the leaked Panama Papers documents and prominent political and business figures on the small European Union nation, as well as working on other investigative stories.Mijatovic has noted that Caruana Galizia had been facing 40 criminal and civil defamation lawsuits at the time of her death, and has called for Maltese authorities to take measures to address the use of such malicious lawsuits, known as SLAPP suits, to silence and intimidate the media. The government said it will be implementing anti-SLAPP measures.Caruana Galizia’s murder sparked international outrage and prompted the European Parliament to send a fact-finding mission to Malta. The country had separately been in the spotlight following the Panama revelations, as two high-ranking government officials at the time were found to have acquired two companies in Panama.In her preliminary report, Mijatovic also called for Malta to decriminalize abortion, ensure reproductive health care and gender equity for women. The government in its response Tuesday noted that it doesn’t have any mandate to change Malta’s abortion laws but that the prime minister has called for continued debate on the decriminalizing the procedure. More

Revenue from road taxes will all-but disappear as the UK goes green, the Treasury has conceded – blowing a £37bn black hole in its budget unless “new sources” are found.Rishi Sunak’s “net zero review” makes no proposals for plugging that huge gap, amid widespread expectations that a pay-per-mile “road pricing” system is inevitable, as electric cars replace petrol and diesel.But it acknowledges “significant and permanent fiscal pressure” on the nation’s finances, which is unlikely to be offset even by higher carbon taxes on industry.And it warns: “Motoring taxes will need to keep pace with these changes during the transition to ensure the UK can continue to fund first-class public services and infrastructure.”Significantly, the Treasury says it would be unfair to “pass the costs onto future taxpayers through borrowing”, which would also make the green transition more expensive.The document adds: “The government may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue throughout the transition in order to deliver net zero sustainably, and consistently with the government’s fiscal principles.”Without changes, receipts from fuel duty and vehicle excise duty “will decline towards zero during the first 20 years of the transition, leaving receipts lower in the 2040s by up to 1.5 per cent of GDP in each year”.Despite the belief that the Chancellor is sceptical about big spending on new green technology, the review warns that “current economic analysis could understate the economic cost to the UK as the climate heats up”.“UK climate action could provide a boost to the economy; the required investment could contribute to growth,” it states.It also hails other benefits, such as cleaner air, which could deliver “£35bn worth of economic benefits in the form of reduced damage costs to society, reflecting for example lower respiratory hospital admissions”.The Treasury has been accused of “running scared of road-pricing”, but there was an expectation that the net zero review would confront it – an expectation now dashed.Nevertheless, Greenpeace gave the document a warm welcome, saying it provided evidence that “the Treasury might actually be starting to get it”.“Taking a longer-term view of the huge economic opportunities from climate action, as well as the costs of inaction, is the right approach,” said Rebecca Newsom, the group’s head of politics.But the words “must now be matched with ambitious policies to reap rewards and avert climate disaster” in next week’s three-year spending review, she added.The net zero review also recognises the need to help poorer households, who otherwise would face higher costs from being the last to make the switch to electric vehicles.The document is published as the government wrestles with how to meet a binding commitment to reduce emissions by 70 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030 – and achieve net zero by 2050. More

An Irish broadcaster shut down Nigel Farage by confronting him on his knowledge of the country’s history after he claimed the country was “governed by” the EU.The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit Party took his anti-EU agitating onto Ireland’s airwaves on Monday, questioning why the nation was still part of the bloc during an appearance on RTE One’s Claire Byrne Live.Speaking to Ms Byrne about the effects that Brexit has had on Britain and Northern Ireland, Mr Farage questioned why the Irish had fought the British for “500 often very bloody, difficult years.”He added: “What was the point of it if you’re now governed by European commissioners?”Ms Byrne said she thought viewers would be “entertained” by his remarks and decided to test the former politician’s knowledge of Ireland.“I want people to see just how much you know about the history and culture on this island,” the presenter said.The programme then cut to a video in which Mr Farage was tricked into reciting a republican message.”I know it’s early so I’ve only got coffee but I hope you enjoy a few pints with the lads tonight. Up the RA,” he says in the clip from Cameo, a website on which people can pay celebrities for recorded messages.Ms Byrne then said: “I know that you said sorry and you get £87 and you have every right to do that. “Come on, don’t try and lecture the Irish people about the culture and history and precarious nature of peace on this island, you haven’t got a clue.”Mr Farage responded by insisting Ireland needed to have a debate over whether to become independent or not in the next few years.He said: “Do you want to be an independent, democratic nation or governed by foreign bureaucrats? That’s the question that Ireland will ask itself.“The Irish people wish to be independent or not and that is a debate that will happen in your country in the next few years.”Ms Byrne was praised for confronting Mr Farage following the interview.“Good on @ClaireByrneLive for showing up Farage for what he is – a mouthpiece for offence,” tweeted anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain. More

The British ambassador to Afghanistan repeatedly warned Dominic Raab that Kabul would swiftly fall into Taliban hands, diplomatic cables have revealed, despite the Foreign Office claiming the takeover came as a surprise.Newly uncovered telegrams show Sir Laurie Bristow emphasised the Islamist militant group was seizing cities across Afghanistan and was on the brink of taking back total control of the country.Mr Raab, then foreign secretary, has previously been accused of being “asleep at the wheel” amid the Taliban surge. A leaked report seen by The Independent revealed last month he was warned more than three weeks before the fall of Kabul on 16 August of the danger a swift Taliban advance would cause the collapse of the Afghan security forces and a major humanitarian crisis.Telegrams published by The Times on Tuesday have now revealed Sir Laurie first warned seven weeks before the fall of Kabul that the Taliban would escalate its takeover plans as the US military left Afghanistan.Three cables Sir Laurie and one from his deputy Alex Pinfield outlined the Taliban’s growing prominence throughout the country as the US prepared to withdraw its forces after 20 years. On 28 June, the ambassador predicted the Taliban were waiting for “irreversible” military withdrawal before seizing more cities. “It is unlikely to do so while it perceives an ongoing threat from US air power,” he wrote. “From a Taliban perspective, doing so would risk provoking a slowing or a reversal of the US withdrawal, as well as taking significant casualties for little gain. It is more likely that the Taliban will wait until it believes international military withdrawal is irreversible before escalating its campaign.”Sir Laurie told the Foreign Office more than 50 districts were reported to have fallen since the withdrawal of international troops began. “Afghan security forces have retaken a number of the lost districts, but open source analysis indicates that of Afghanistan’s 421 districts, the Taliban now controls 156 to the government’s 82, with the remainder contested,” he wrote on 28 June.Four days later, on 2 July, US president Joe Biden pulled his military from Bagram air base, formerly the largest of the American bases in Afghanistan.Just over a month later, Sir Laurie sent another warning on 2 August, this time more desperate. He told the Foreign Office: “The gloves are off. We are entering a new, dangerous phase of the conflict.” Unless there was a major turnaround, he warned, the Taliban were soon likely to take their first city with more to follow.“If that happens, the impact on already fragile political unity, military and public confidence and sentiment will be significant,” he added.He warned the expected fall of Lashkar Gar in Helmand that week would increase pressure for Britain to rescue loyal Afghans. “The UK legacy in Helmand may add fuel to the public debate in the UK over relocating those who have worked for us during the last two decades in Afghanistan,” Sir Laurie wrote. Mr Raab is believed to have gone holiday to Crete days after this telegram was received on 6 August. France began its Kabul evacuation in May, while the UK’s operation up leaving more than 1,000 Afghans who had risked their lives to help Britain. In his appearance before the Commons select committee last month, Mr Raab said intelligence assessments indicated Kabul was unlikely to fall this year. The former foreign secretary had claimed “a lot of people” were surprised by the pace of the Taliban advance and also conceded he would “not have gone away, with the benefit of hindsight”.A final telegram was sent on 17 August from Sir Laurie after the Taliban took control of Kabul and diplomats fled the embassy for the Afghan capital’s airport. “After 20 years, the Taliban are back in control of Afghanistan. The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has collapsed, and President Ghani has fled,” Sir Laurie wrote. “It took only nine days from the fall of the first provincial capital to a complete Taliban victory.“It’s also a big and difficult moment for many of our people. Afghanistan has played a big part in the lives of many staff across Whitehall, and many have been deeply affected by developments.“Above all, this is a difficult moment for our military colleagues who have paid a high price in the Afghanistan campaign.” Dominic Raab was moved to the ministry of justice in Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last month, a move seen as a demotion from his role as foreign secretary. A government spokesperson said: “While the situation in Afghanistan was clearly deteriorating, the Taliban’s final advance on Kabul was significantly faster than anyone predicted.“Despite an extremely difficult situation on the ground, months of intensive cross-government planning allowed us to deliver the biggest and most-challenging evacuation in living memory, bringing 15,000 people, including 7,000 British nationals and their families, to safety.” More

Hotter summers and less predictable rainfall as a result of climate change will create an increased risk of droughts and serious water shortages in the UK, the Environment Agency has said.In a stark warning ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, the government agency said there had to be far greater focus on the threat to water supply as the country begins to feel the impact of the climate crisis.Sir James Bevan, chief executive of Environment Agency, said major investments are needed to avoid the so-called ‘Jaws of Death’ – the point on water companies’ planning charts where demand outstrips supply.“Good water quality is essential – but the right water quantity is existential,” he said. “We need as much emphasis on the latter in the future as we have now on the former.”Sir James added: “We know what to do to avoid those jaws: reduce demand, by using less water more efficiently; and improve supply, including by investing in the right infrastructure. That means we need to think strategically, radically and long term.”The Environment Agency has estimated that summer rainfall is expected to decrease by approximately 15 per cent in England by the 2050s, and by up to 22 per cent by the 2080s.Population growth and climate change will also increase the demand for water – meaning that if no further action is taken between 2025 and 2050, more than 3.4 billion extra litres of water per day will be needed for the UK’s public water supplies.In a gloomy report handed to Boris Johnson’s government last week, the agency said more and worse environmental incidents – such as greater flooding and serious water shortages – are now inevitable in the UK.In an “adapt or die” warning, the non-departmental public body has urged the government to focus on adaptation measures – claiming there are now just as important as action to cut carbon missions.“However successful Cop26 is, it won’t stop the climate changing or all the effects of that change,” Sir James told the Royal Society on Tuesday.“Because human activity to date means that some irrevocable climate change has already happened and that more will continue to happen, even if the world stopped all carbon emissions tonight.”The Environment Agency chief added: “That is why as a nation we need to be climate ready – resilient to the future hazards and potential shocks that we already know will impact on all our lives.” More

Plans have been announced to incentivise people to replace their old gas boilers with low-carbon heating options, including heat pumps. The government said new £5,000 grants will be available to households to help them to install low-carbon technologies from next April. The plans aim to make heat pumps — which run on electricity and work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground — no more expensive to install than a traditional boiler.But environmentalists have criticised the three-year scheme – which would pay for one in 250 boilers to be replaced – as not going far enough.Out of the 22 million gas-heated households in the UK, 90,000 would be able to benefit from £5,000 grants under the £450m plan. While the new incentives aim to make the UK’s homes greener, the government has said homeowners will not be forced to make the low-carbon switch when replacing existing boilers.But for those who want to choose a more environmentally friendly option, the grant will be available to cut the installation costs — which is around £10,000 on average for heat pumps. Instead of forcing people into making an immediate switch, the grants aim to encourage homeowners to make green choices when the time comes to replace old boilers. Octopus Energy, a renewable energy group, said it would install heat pumps for about the same cost as gas boilders when the grant scheme launches next spring. The government’s boiler upgrade scheme – worth £450m in total – is planned to run over three years until 2024. The government says it wants to see households “gradually move away” from fossil fuel boilers “in an affordable, practical and fair way” over the next 14 years. But speaking about the boiler upgrade scheme, Mike Childs from Friends of the Eart said: “£450m pounds delivered via individual £5,000 grants means 90,000 heat pump installations over three years.“That just isn’t very much, and won’t meet the prime minister’s ambition of 600,000 a year by 2028.” More

Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie needed a friend to form a “childcare bubble” with them over Christmas because of the challenges of parenting while prime minister, a cabinet minister has insisted.Anne-Marie Trevelyan said it was “absolutely the right thing” for them to have son Wilfred’s godmother, Nimco Ali, at No 10 while lockdown restrictions in London largely prevented household mixing.Swathes of people had their festive plans cancelled last year when Mr Johnson placed the capital and much of the south east under Tier 4 restrictions amid soaring coronavirus cases.But the international trade secretary argued it was right for the Johnsons to have their friend over to help with childcare at the time when Wilfred was eight months.“It’s hard enough for the rest of us, when you’re having to run a country as well and have the challenges of difficult pregnancies, having a supportive friend to be there in your bubble is absolutely the right thing to do,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Downing Street has faced questions over the festive arrangements after a report in Harper’s Magazine claimed Ali “spent Christmas with the couple at No 10 despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings”.Ms Ali, a longstanding friend of Carrie Johnson, and a government adviser on tackling violence against women and girls, insisted that she did “not break any rules”.Describing her as a “passionate and adoring godmother”, Ms Trevelyan also insisted the Johnsons had followed the restrictions in place at the time.“I have no doubt at all the prime minister and Mrs Johnson followed the rules and they had the kind support of Nimco to support them in what was a really tough time for them,” she added.She added: “It was a childcare bubble and Nimco was there to help support and look after Wilf whilst the challenges of being the prime minister and his wife … I have every confidence they did not break the rules.”The childcare bubble rules were open to anyone living in a household with a child aged under 14, allowing friends or family from one other household to provide help looking after the child.On Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson told The Independent: “The prime minister and Mrs Johnson have followed coronavirus rules at all times. It is totally untrue to suggest otherwise.”Responding to reports on social media, Ms Ali said she had received racist abuse since “untrue story” first appeared, adding: “No I did not break any rules but you knew that and just wanted a reason to tweet hate”. More