Rishi Sunak has been accused of trying to avoid scrutiny of his green policies after details surfaced about his government’s failure, over more than 18 months, to appoint a new chair of the independent climate change committee.
Senior environmentalists said they believed Sunak may be deliberately trying to avoid appointing a successor to Lord Deben – who first announced that he was stepping down in July 2022 – until after a general election, so he does not face criticism for his U-turns on green issues.
The Observer can reveal that peer and former Tory minister David Willetts, who had been seen as the clear favourite, was interviewed for the post last summer but has since had no further contact at all from the government about the job and no indication as to whether he is still being considered.
It is understood that others who were interviewed for the five-year post last summer – including former Tory minister Richard Benyon and former head of the environment agency, Emma Howard Boyd – and the head hunters ministers used to sift applications, have also been left in the dark.
A Whitehall source who knows several people who applied for the post said: “No one seems to know what is going on. There could be a number of reasons. Either Sunak does not want anyone in the job because he wants to avoid being criticised in the run-up to a general election or there is a blockage, a disagreement at high level over who it should be. Whatever it is, it is scandalous that a job like this has not been filled when climate change is supposed to be the most urgent question facing humanity.”
In July 2022, it was announced Lord Deben had been asked to continue in the post until the end of June 2023, while a new chair was sought. A year and a half later, the chair is still unfilled, with Prof Piers Forster acting as interim head.
The committee suffered another blow last week, when its chief executive, Chris Stark, announced he was standing down after six years. Stark is to join net zero advisory group the Carbon Trust as chief executive.
Two weeks ago the Observer reported that the leading UK organisation working on the economic effects of global warming had written to the prime minister condemning the “excessive delay” in finding a replacement for Lord Deben.
Bob Ward, head of policy at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, told Sunak that the holdup was harming efforts to control carbon emissions and damaging the UK’s reputation as a climate change leader.
This came amid growing disillusion with Sunak in the green movement. Earlier this year the prime minister astonished environmentalists when he announced an annual system of oil and gas licensing in the North Sea, as well as measures including delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.
The Climate Change Committee was set up under the 2008 Climate Change Act to guide national policies on emissions and help the country prepare for the impact of global warming. In the past, it has critcised Britain’s poor performance in areas including flood defences and domestic energy efficiency.
One of its key roles is to decide the amounts of greenhouse gas the UK will emit in coming decades. The next carbon budget, the UK’s seventh, will set levels for the period 2038 to 2042.
Before the appointment of a new chair can be announced, he or she has to be approved by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Sources in the Scottish government suggested they had been engaged in discussions over a successor but indicated that no appointment was imminent.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Under the terms of the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the appointment of the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) Chair is made jointly by the UK and devolved governments.
“We would anticipate announcements about the Chair appointment later this year to ensure a smooth transition with the current interim CCC Chair, Piers Forster.”
Tessa Khan, co-founder of Uplift, an NGO that supports the transition from fossil fuels, said: “This delay [in appointing someone to chair the committee] points to a government that is running scared of scrutiny over its climate record.
“Rather than tracking progress and sticking to the science, the prime minister would rather we just took his word for it, particularly when it comes to new oil and gas production. We know, for example, that developing the Rosebank oil field is incompatible with the UK’s climate targets, yet the government has nodded it through and plans to hand out even more drilling licences.
“Meanwhile homes are flooded across the country, energy bills are unaffordable for millions and the UK is losing out on the massive opportunities from the shift to cheaper, clean energy.”
Joss Garman, executive director of the European Climate Foundation, said: “Successive governments of all persuasion have respected the Committee for its independent, unbiased and expert advice acting on the clear mandate it was given with cross party support by Parliament. It has been so successful and useful that governments around the world have looked to copy the model and build their own versions.
“It is essential it is not now muzzled, or turned into a political football, for cynical, short-term political expediency.”
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the government was committed to meeting its net zero targets and would appoint a successor to Lord Deben “in due course.”
