Well, no, because you were responding to a poll judging Government performance since 2019, which has been at best mediocre. In 2019, the UK was 2 spots higher than it is now, and it was at the top in 2015. If the question is which G20 country has been a leader in the 21st century, I’d put UK top of list. But much of the entire problem is that decisions have long-term consequences, however in this case, that is to the UK’s benefit. One government can only do so much to fix the problem, but also cannot completely derail things without a concerted effort. However, if you care about climate change, and wish to make that your ‘ballot box’ issue, BoJo has been rather poor.
On vaccines, yes, somewhere in between the two extremes of the lockdown decisions (almost entirely political) and testing (near pure test of state functionality). The Conservative government to my mind deserves significant praise for seeing the problem and the solution, executing it, and then getting it out of the political as soon as possible - with the vaccine taskforce being a very good example of assembling the capacity that was there, and letting it focus. But I had already rated the UK’s initiative to get the vaccines among the top 3 in the world.
The CCPI experts still regard the UK as a leading country for climate policy, despite its slight downgrade in the rankings. The country has substantial political and financial support to deliver its net zero 2050 target and the new interim target for a net zero power system by 2035, and to ensure that progress is made at this year’s rescheduled COP26. The government has also created policies to support development of hydrogen, carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS), carbon removal, and greater take-up of electric vehicles. The UK is rated high for the trend in renewable energy share, primarily owing to its offshore wind sector and phasing out of coal-fired power generation, with its power sector decarbonisation accounting for most of the emissions reductions in the economy.
Sure - but your original claim was a reaction to a poll assessing performance since 2019, and why voters might think BoJO has not done particularly well. There is a reason why it is ‘still’ rather than ‘continues to be’
There is ample evidence, even in that, that the UK is not headed in entirely the right direction. The COP was not quite the disaster that it was feared it would be, but was not really a triumph either. The CCPI credit the UK for policies, fair enough, but very few of those do not predate 2019, and the one that does (EV) is intensely problematic in light of the UK’s actual energy situation. Similar applies to all the lovely good marks for renewable energy, which has been flat for three years (to be fair, covid messes up that signal rather significantly).
The authors do seem to provide credit for financial support for the 2050 net zero target, but that goes back to the earlier question of the credibility of the plan in reaching that objective. The comparison with other G20 may in fact be favourable (certainly cannot possibly be worse than Canada’s).
Not getting much satisfaction looking at global surveys. Lots about the total gap, but NDC commitments all taken at face value in what I have found. Then you go look at the national assessments, and you find the uncertainty there Usual suspects like WRI don’t appear to have anything out yet that aggregates that.
UK comes in at the exciting level of ‘almost sufficient’, which is as high as any country is rated, but the trend line is not headed the right direction. Of course, the UK would be merely be ‘insufficient’ then, not ‘highly’ or ‘critically’
CCPI actually was September, I believe, and I would guess the information that they were assessing would not have been even that current. Definitely before the November changes.
If next year’s CCPI has the UK improved when taking account of its further progress in the latter half of 2021, I’ll have to remember to come back here and say, “see…?”
• The UK hasn’t spent £37 billion on its test and trace system.
• It’s test and trace system is very good. It tests more per capita than any other country in the world with a population of more than 11 million.
• Germany hasn’t spent €834 million on its test and trace system. It’s spent much more.
• The links provided makes the point that the figures are not comparing like with like.
And, once more with feeling. The UK can set whatever headline grabbing targets on climate it likes. They are absolutely irrelevant.
I’ve stated four government backed policies or projects that will make any net zero target absolutely impossible to meet. Add to those Heathrow expansion, the impact of which will be catastrophic to ever getting emissions under control.
The science is telling us that the next decade is critical and we have to make deep cuts before 2030 if we are to have any hope of keeping within 1.5 degrees. A 2050 target set by Government that seems to think we don’t need to worry about until 2049 is not really worth the time of day.
Their approach on climate is absolutely consistent with a government that likes to say the right thing, but is completely uninterested in doing the right thing.
The idea that an intelligent person could think the Conservative Government is doing well on Climate is staggering.
So let’s ignore three independent climate assessments that have been posted in this thread that says the UK is one of the best performing countries in the world on taking climate action. Assessments that look in detail at what countries are actually doing. Let’s all ignore that, say it’s bollocks, don’t provide any information as to why it’s bollocks, it just is, right? Because, reasons.
