Johnson’s premiership has brought more environmental legislation and arguably more progress in tackling the climate and nature crises than any of his Conservative predecessors in the past decade. Three landmark acts of parliament – the Agriculture Act, the Fisheries Act and the Environment Act – as well as a plan to achieve net zero emissions, an energy security strategy and the UN climate summit Cop26 in Glasgow last November, have produced an energetic two and a half years. Johnson has also overseen plans to phase out petrol and diesel cars, a boom in offshore wind and a pledge to protect a third of the UK’s land and seas. Sam Hall, of the Conservative Environment Network, said green policies had always been Johnson’s focus, not an add-on. “Despite the political turmoil caused by Brexit and the pressures to deal with the pandemic, the Prime Minister has delivered an impressive amount of new green policy at home and prioritized environmental issues at international forums such as Cop26 and the G7. “Net zero in particular has been seen as an integral part of the Government’s strategy for the upward trend, with a huge amount of new investment set to flow into the UK’s industrial heartlands as a result of our net zero target. In response to the crisis in Ukraine, the Prime Minister has doubled down on renewable energy to boost the UK’s energy security and ease the cost of living, although he has failed to unlock further support for energy efficiency from the Treasury.” Ben Goldsmith, a prominent Tory Greens supporter and brother of Jacques, the Foreign Secretary who was elevated to the Lords by Johnson, said: “I have never seen a prime minister who has placed such importance on climate and nature recovery . It was bigger than we’ve seen from any previous government.” Goldsmith highlighted Johnson’s genuine interest in nature and animal welfare issues, shared by his wife Carrie Johnson. “It has the feel of the sanctuary,” Goldsmith said. “Nature really matters to him. I’m not sure many political leaders share that.” Even hardline activists give Johnson credit. Dave Timms, head of political affairs at Friends of the Earth, said: “As Prime Minister, Johnson increasingly made the climate crisis part of both his personal narrative and the Conservative party’s public narrative. His rhetoric at times like the UN climate talks, while idiosyncratic, did not hesitate to acknowledge the level of devastation the world was facing, nor the urgency of action needed.” But campaigners also said Johnson’s green record was fragile, flawed and undermined by twists and turns. Along the way there were also victories for the Tory party’s right-wing Net Zero Scrutiny Group, set up to block climate policies. And alongside announcements such as a “10-point plan” to “build better” from the pandemic, there have been policy failures and gaps, as well as many measures – road building, airport expansion, new North Sea oil and gas licensing and a new coal mine at odds with Johnson’s green ambitions. “It’s a tragedy that he seemed unable to turn around [his rhetoric] to decisive and consistent domestic action across government to address this crisis,” said Timms. “It allowed key departments to act as if the climate crisis were an optional extra, or in the case of Rishi Sunak’s Treasury, to actively undermine efforts with tax breaks for short-haul flights, cuts to insulation programs and road construction.” The windfall tax on oil and gas companies is another example: the way it is implemented means it could, perversely, boost fossil fuel production, as companies can largely avoid the tax by investing in new oil development and natural gas in the North Sea. For nature conservation, too, rhetoric has outstripped reality, according to Richard Benwell, chief executive of the charity Wildlife and Countryside Link. “Johnson has made some great promises … But there remains a big gap between promise and practical action,” he said. Urgent investment was needed, in water quality and habitat restoration, and to improve the UK’s farmland, but all of this was “incomplete, unworkable and underfunded”, Benwell said, and some proposals would “weaken the most our important nature conservation laws.” Those failures will be the ones that count, Timms added. “The economic and social cost of inaction [on the environment] it will completely eclipse the money being spent now moving us towards a zero-carbon future. Measures like comprehensive home insulation programs will save money on fuel bills, investing in green energy will free us from the tyranny of volatile fossil fuel prices. Hundreds of thousands of new and long-term jobs can be created, but the longer we put off action the more expensive and damaging the final bill will be.” Johnson’s inability to keep control of his party has opened up an even bigger risk: the prospect that his successor could lose his green leanings to appease the Tory right. His scandals have already given space to some who have always been unhappy with green policies to air their grievances. The Net Zero Scrutiny Group of around 20 Tory MPs has suggested that net zero should be pushed back as it is too expensive and that more investment in fossil fuels is needed to combat energy price rises. Hall called the Net Zero Scrutiny Group “a noisy minority within the party”, while the Conservative Environment Network counts more than 100 MPs as members. Their impact, however, means the would-be Green prime minister leaves a muddled legacy and environmentally-minded Tories must scramble to salvage what they can from the policy wreckage. Their claims have little basis in reality: the UK energy price crisis is due to an over-reliance on natural gas fueled by a failure to invest in renewables and energy efficiency, and the quest for further reliance on natural gas it just creates problems for the future. But the anti-green rhetoric has gained traction in the right-wing press and appears to be influencing Johnson’s potential successors: Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been particularly cool on green issues. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Joshua Marks, of the BrightBlue thinktank, which advocates green policies from a Conservative perspective, warned that Johnson’s failures would mark the UK for years to come. “Johnson envisioned himself as a green tsar whose lasting legacy is to decarbonise and flatten Britain through the transition to a low-carbon economy. With distractions like the coronavirus, I suspect he won’t be remembered as such,” he said.
