24 September 2023 , 07:21
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Donald Trump has said Rishi Sunak was "smart" to weaken climate targets to achieve net zero this week.
The former US President praised the PM for having "very substantially rolled back the ridiculous 'Climate Mandates'" and congratulated him for "recognising this SCAM before it was too late". He criticised the US government for not doing the same.
In a post on his social media platform Truth, Mr Trump said: "Prime Minister Sunak of the United Kingdom has very substantially rolled back the ridiculous 'Climate Mandates' that the United States is pushing on everyone, especially itself. I always knew Sunak was smart, that he wasn’t going to destroy and bankrupt his nation for fake climate alarmists that don’t have a clue."
He went on: "In the meantime the U.S. keeps rolling merrily along, spending Trillions of Dollars trying to do that which is not doable, while at the same time breathing in the filthy and totally untreated air floating over our once great Country from China, India, Russia, and Parts Unknown. They are all building Coal Fired Plants by the hundreds each year, and Germany, which has almost destroyed itself with its ridiculous form of the Green New Hoax, has just joined in.
"Congratulations to Prime Minister Sunak for recognizing this SCAM before it was too late! The Green New Hoax will take down the U.S., perhaps even sooner than our Open Border of Death. IT MUST BE STOPPED. MAGA!!!"
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It comes after Rishi Sunak last week watered down key climate commitments in a major U-turn throwing the UK's target to achieve net zero by 2050 into chaos. In an unscheduled press conference after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he delayed and weakened targets that were set to help the UK achieve the goal.
During a day of Tory in-fighting he was also accused of putting his party's electoral prospects ahead of the planet and calls for an immediate general election. There were also warnings the changes announced by Mr Sunak at the hastily arranged press conference - after a leak of the plans - could drive up costs for the public.
The move included delaying ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years from 2030 to 2035 and weakening a target to stop installing new gas boilers by 2035 so that a fifth of homes are exempted. Grants for people wanting to switch to costly air source heat pumps were also increased to £7,500. A 2026 ban on new oil boilers for homes not connected to the National Grid was delayed until 2035 and landlords were told they will no longer be forced to make their properties more energy efficient.
Shadow Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said the PM "does not give a damn" about climate change. The ex-Labour leader told Labour's sister Co-operative Party conference: "I think Rishi Sunak simply sees the climate crisis as an obligation to be managed, not an opportunity to be seized, and we see it as an opportunity to be seized."
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