LONDON — The prospect of record-breaking temperatures in Britain could be expected to stifle political leaders over the ambition of their climate protection plans.
Instead, with a ferocious battle underway to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, top candidates are talking less about global warming and more about how to mitigate the impact of rising energy bills on pressured consumers.
Scientists have found that some of the extreme heat around the world in recent years has been influenced by human-induced climate change.
But the direction of the debate has so alarmed Alok Sharma, a minister who led last year’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. that Sunday in an interview with The Observer he threatened to quit as Mr. Johnson would abandon current commitments to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The five politicians still in the running to succeed Mr Johnson as Conservative Party leader are not proposing to do so, but in a TV debate on Sunday, the three frontrunners all said they wanted to protect consumers whose rising domestic Energy bills are expected to rise again this fall.
Rishi Sunak, the former finance minister, warned that “if we go too hard and too fast, we will lose people”; Penny Mordaunt, a middle commerce secretary, said the net-zero plan “shouldn’t cheat people”; and Liz Truss, the Secretary of State, said it should be delivered in a way that “does not harm people and businesses.” She promised a moratorium on “green taxes” added to energy bills to help fund transition costs.
Those views can be explained both by rising inflation in Britain and by leadership contest rules, which require Conservative lawmakers to reduce the number of contenders to two, with the final decision to be made in a vote of party members.
According to a poll commissioned by The Times of LondonJust 4 percent of Conservative Party members surveyed said reaching the net-zero emissions target by 2050 was one of their three priorities for their next leader.
Data suggests that the general public cares a lot more, and whoever wins should probably take that into account if they want to win a general election.
But Ed Miliband, speaking on behalf of the opposition Labor party on climate issues, criticized the conservative candidates, write on Twitter that “as Britain faces its worst heat wave warning ever, it is unbelievable that leadership candidates are tripping over each other to dump climate commitments,” adding, “The Conservative Party is completely disconnected from reality and the British people.”
Extinction Rebellion, a climate action group, said a number of medical professionals had been released by police after a protest in which eight windows were shattered at the offices of investment bank JPMorgan Chase in Canary Wharf, London, on Sunday.
Juliette Brown, a psychiatrist who took part in the campaign, said in a statement: “This week could be the hottest day in recorded history in the UK, putting my patients – with dementia and with severe mental illness – at very high risk. to heat stress.” said
“It is absolutely my professional duty to sound the alarm, just as so many other health professionals, scientists, activists and leaders do,” she added, accusing the company of continuing to profit from fossil fuel interests and “consciously addressing this climate crisis.” to awaken”.