British climate chief may resign as Tory race heats up

Web Desk

17th Jul, 2022. 05:18 pm
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Kemi Badenoch has a double-digit lead over Tory leadership candidates on net zero carbon emissions.
Alok Sharma, president of COP26, steps in to act as UK’s climate minister.

LONDON: Britain’s climate minister has hinted that he may leave as certain Conservative leadership candidates equivocate on the government’s net zero objectives, ahead of a crucial television debate on Sunday and the final rounds of voting by MPs this week.

Alok Sharma, the president of COP26, stepped in after a poll of Tory rank-and-file members gave Kemi Badenoch a surprising double-digit advantage.

Based on an unscientific vote on the ConservativeHome website, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss came in second, ahead of previous favourite Penny Mordaunt and ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak.

Badenoch, a former junior minister without cabinet experience, is running on a right-wing, “anti-woke” platform and has stated that net zero equates to “unilateral economic disarmament” on the part of the United Kingdom.

Truss and Mordaunt have questioned “green taxes” to assist in funding the legally mandated goal of attaining net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while Britons struggle with a cost-of-living problem.

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However, with Britain experiencing record-breaking temperatures this week, Sharma told the Sunday Observer that the objective was “absolutely a leadership issue” as the candidates wage a bitter campaign to succeed scandal-plagued Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The minister stated, “Anyone aspiring to lead our country needs to demonstrate that they take this issue incredibly seriously, that they’re willing to continue to lead and take up the mantle that Boris Johnson started off.”

When asked if he could resign if candidates demonstrated inadequacy on net zero, Sharma responded: “Let’s see, shall we? I think we need to see where the candidates are. And we need to see who actually ends up in Number 10 (Downing Street).”