For years, politicians have ramped up the rhetoric of concern and pledged to speed up emissions cuts, but now there are signs of a political backlash. Uk Prime Minister rishi sunak is championing new Oil Exploration and reining in spending on climate aid. That prompted my guest, zac goldsmith, to quit suna k s government. But in an age of populist politics, has going green become another ideologicalfaultline . Zac, lord goldsmith, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure to have you here. Just a couple of months ago, you left rishi sunak s government and, as you left, you lobbed a political grenade in his direction. Why did you do that . My concern is that, you know, im maybe a rare thing, a minister who cares passionately, or cared passionately about my portfolio. And ifound myjob was becoming untenable, it was becoming impossible for me to go forward. It was becoming virtually impossible to prevent government from sliding back. And the key issue is this pledge whi
Zac, lord goldsmith, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure to have you here. Just a couple of months ago, you left rishi sunak s government and, as you left, you lobbed a political grenade in his direction. Why did you do that . My concern is that, you know, im maybe a rare thing, a minister who cares passionately, or cared passionately about my portfolio. And ifound myjob was becoming untenable, it was becoming impossible for me to go forward. It was becoming virtually impossible to prevent government from sliding back. And the key issue is this pledge which was made by borisjohnson, repeated by liz truss, repeated a few times by rishi sunak around International Climate finance, from which so much of what the uk has done over the last few years flows, and that pledge was being broken. You say, because it was a pledge of something over. £11. 6 billion over five years. Over five years to be invested in International Climate change programmes and efforts. Yes. You
i would say, and it s very hard to measure this, but i would say there are more people in the parliamentary party, and it s probably true of members as well, who are committed to seeing through the commitments we ve made on the environment, notjust carbon, but on the broader environment as well, than those people who are pushing back. unfortunately, those who push back are tougher, they re louder, they re more aggressive and they re effective at grabbing the mic. priti patel, former home secretary, we need to pause all of this activity. and she is n a minority. the public are not ready for it. craig mackinlay, the chairman of a new group, i think they ve got more new members than the net zero scrutiny group. you could name 30 or a0 people, no doubt. i m telling you, one group has more than 50 mps and their numbers are growing. but then equally, there are many, many more members in the conservative environment network, which is committed to net zero, which is committed to the broade
against the green agenda? i m mindful that when you entered politics back in 2005/06, david cameron was pushing this idea, vote blue , ie tory, and go green . well, now what we see are very senior conservatives backing away, explicitly backing away from the commitments to cut emissions very significantly by 2030 and to get to net zero by 2050. your party no longer buys it? i would say, and it s very hard to measure this, but i would say there are more people in the parliamentary party, and it s probably true of members as well, who are committed to seeing through the commitments we ve made on the environment, notjust carbon, but on the broader environment as well, than those people who are pushing back. unfortunately, those who push back are tougher, they re louder, they re more aggressive and they re effective at grabbing the mic. priti patel, former home secretary, we need to pause all of this activity. and she is in a minority. the public are not ready for it. craig mackinlay,