Andy Burnham has been criticised for moving to cut electric vehicle (EV) sales targets and accept North Sea drilling at a time of devastating wildfires caused by the climate emergency. The prime minister for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the climate crisis was behind hundreds of wildfires that have ripped across the parts of the UK. The scale of the disaster has prompted the government to bring in the military, ban the sale of disposable barbecues and activate the national alert system to issue safety advice to people across England and Wales in areas at risk on Friday night.
However, Burnham was also accused of failing to take the push for net zero seriously enough, as the government took steps towards watering down EV targets on the same day. The government on Friday launched a consultation on cutting the target for new EVs to as little as 50% of all new cars in 2030, down from 80% under existing rules, in proposals that could add millions of tonnes a year to the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. The consultation will include several options, including leaving the headline target unchanged, or cutting it to 70%, 60% or 50%.
In a video from the West Midlands, where homes have been destroyed and dozens of people injured, Burnham appeared to acknowledge the seriousness of the climate crisis. Farmers are watching crops fail and firefighters have faced hundreds of wildfires in a matter of weeks. This is what climate change looks like, here and now.” But in a broadcast interview, he also defended his “pragmatic” approach on extracting oil and gas from the North Sea.
His government will shortly have to decide whether to allow new drilling at the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, with a consultation on the former closing on Monday. Environmental groups have said permitting extraction at the fields should be inconceivable after five heatwaves this summer, with Greenpeace saying it was a “Rubicon that he must not cross”. The decision to consider weakening one of the UK’s key climate policies on EVs was announced hours after the country recorded its hottest day of the year so far – and the fifth hottest ever – after five heatwaves that scientists have said are almost certainly worsened by global heating caused by carbon emissions.
Fire services said 19 homes were destroyed, 200 hectares (500 acres) burnt and dozens of people sent to hospital in the West Midlands, the UK’s traditional automotive centre, in grassfires that may have been worsened by drought. Speaking from Stourbridge, Burnham said it was necessary to bring in a temporary ban on disposable barbecues from Friday, asking retailers to withdraw them from sale. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting is a risk to people’s homes and other people’s lives.” The prime minister also revealed he planned to commission firefighting planes to combat the spread of wildfires and appointed a new fire minister, as he made the case that country had to “face up” to the “changing climate”.
Environmental groups largely welcomed Burnham’s words on the climate after 50 organisations earlier criticised him in a letter for failing to mention it following a Cobra meeting on the heatwave earlier this week. Hannah Martin, the co-director of Green New Deal Rising which coordinated Friday’s letter, said: “Finally Andy Burnham has said the words ‘climate change’ as prime minister and acknowledged the cause of the wildfires, drought and extreme heat that is raging across the country. Now he needs to put policies in place to deal with the scale of the crisis.
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