On behalf of committee members including myself, the Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee has written to the Prime Minister following his speech on net zero policies on 20th September 2023.

I support the Chair’s intervention, which has the following asks of the Prime Minister:

• Please arrange for the Committee to receive a revised Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, setting out how the March 2023 Plan is to be amended in consequence of each policy change announced on 20th September, together with any relevant advice received from the Committee on Climate Change.
• Please also set out the modelling and policy assumptions made within Government on how interim and final net zero targets are to be met…
• Please set out the Government’s current policy on introducing a mandate for minimum sales of zero emissions vehicles, and what impact the extension of the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars will have on the trajectory to reduce emissions from road transport.
• Ministers had previously supported the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, citing an estimated boost to the economy of some £4.2bn and the creation of up to 40,000 UK jobs from introducing a ban before the EU. Please set out the Government’s latest projections for the impact on GDP and employment levels of postponing the ban to 2035.

Read the full letter from the Committee here.