Former Green party leader Caroline Lucas stands at the Cuadrilla exploratory drilling site in Balcombe, West Sussex. The Conservatives supported fracking in 2015,Former Green party leader Caroline Lucas stands at the Cuadrilla exploratory drilling site in Balcombe, West Sussex. The Conservatives supported fracking in 2015,t’s been a long journey on environmental issues for the Tories – but somehow it feels as if it has been in the wrong direction.
Rishi Sunak promised to keep international climate funding commitments and said the transition to net zero has to be “pragmatic”, which has been interpreted by many as a signal toCameron’s 2010 manifesto made some positive commitments on cleaning up the energy sector, pledging to encourage new renewable energy and to clean up coal, backed by an emissions performance standard on power stations.
But in 2024 Sunak, once again, seems to have gone backwards, committing to restricting ground-mounted solar panels from farmland and guaranteeing no new green levies or charges to fund renewables. This could lead to the cancellation of new nuclear and renewable projects in the pipeline. Sunak’s manifesto makes little mention of the green economy except in a pledge to become a net electricity exporter, a proportion of which would be generated by gas, and a carbon markets mechanism to stop green industry here being displaced by more polluting industry abroad.The Tories have zigzagged back and forth on the two biggest flagship transport decisions: the expansion of Heathrow and the construction of HS2.
Johnson went a step further in 2019, promising to consult on a full petrol and diesel vehicle phase-out. He pledged electric vehicle infrastructure including a national plug-in network and gigafactory.