British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's green agenda has been "plunged into chaos" amid Chancellor Rishi Sunak's concerns that BoJo's commitment to go net-zero by 2050 may ride roughshod over the cost of living for UK households, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The revelation comes after a Treasury review on the costs of meeting the net-zero 2050 deadline was delayed twice from its original publication date, scheduled for spring.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (C) gestures during a visit to a tesco.com distribution centre in London with Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (L) on November 11, 2020
© AFP 2023 / KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH
The Telegraph claimed that the foot-dragging was caused by fears that the review may fuel a cost-of-living crisis and that Britain's poorest households may be hit the hardest by the green agenda.
The newspaper cited unnamed government sources as saying that Johnson was "acutely aware" of the necessity to monitor household finances in order to ensure that policies aimed at resolving climate change are "affordable for everyone".
"Obviously, with anything like this, those with less money are going to be disproportionately hit more. That's common sense. That's why work is ongoing to ensure the best solutions to ensure we hit 2050 without extraordinary costs to ordinary working class families", the sources pointed out.
In late July, the Daily Mail put a price tag for meeting the 2050 net-zero deadline to about £1.4 trillion ($1.9 trillion). Johnson reportedly favours providing the nation's poorest households with cheques worth hundreds of pounds to compensate for the costs of the green agenda.
Sunak, for his part, is extremely frustrated over BoJo's alleged plans as the chancellor is trying his best to pay off the UK's £400 billion ($555 billion) COVID bill, according to the Daily Mail.
Johnson unveiled the government's plan to implement a "green industrial revolution" in the UK in mid-November 2020, when he said that his "ten-point plan will create, support, and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050".
He argued that Britain's green revolution "will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands, and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales" so that the country can "look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future".