Boris Johnson has a problem. The prime minister presides over a Tory party that has little interest in climate change and a UN climate summit in Glasgow this November could shine an uncomfortable spotlight on his climate commitments. But if Johnson tries to tackle the issue head on, climate activists, like Extinction Rebellion, will have to think of new tactics to avoid draining public support.
The last Tory majority government in 2015 set a precedent for the party’s climate policy. No longer dependent on a Liberal Democrat coalition and with the Labour party in disarray, the Tories pushed through a raft of measures reserving climate legislation. Funding for solar and wind was cut, while North Sea oil received subsidies. But most damaging of all was the scrapping of a plan to make all new homes carbon-neutral from 2016.
Whatever the rhetoric, little has changed since. Although a few Tory MPs and peers do take the risk of climate breakdown seriously, they have almost no power in a new Parliament dominated by neoliberals.
