{"id":13059,"date":"2023-06-30T11:05:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esgtoday.com\/?p=13059"},"modified":"2023-06-30T11:06:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:06:15","slug":"uk-environment-minister-quits-over-government-apathy-on-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esgtoday.com\/uk-environment-minister-quits-over-government-apathy-on-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Environment Minister Quits Over Government “Apathy” on Climate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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UK Foreign Office Minister for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment Zac Goldsmith announced his resignation from his post on Friday, with a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s \u201capathy\u201d towards government efforts to tackle climate change and environmental issues that he said made his role \u201cuntenable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his resignation letter, Goldsmith praised the UK\u2019s leadership on environmental and climate initiatives over the past several years, highlighting in particular the UK-hosted COP26 climate conference<\/a> in 2021, as well as its substantial influence on last year\u2019s international agreement to protect 30%<\/a> of global land and oceans by 2030 and on efforts to establish a global treaty on plastic pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Sunak, however, Goldsmith said that he has \u201cbeen horrified as, bit by bit, we have abandoned these commitments,\u201d adding that the UK has visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature. Specific criticisms in the letter included the Prime Minister\u2019s decision not to attend \u201ca critically important environment summit in Paris\u201d earlier this month, referring to the Summit for a New Financial Pact<\/a>, and on effectively abandoning a \u201cpledge to spend \u00a311.6bn of our aid on climate and environment,\u201d and that \u201cthe only reason the government has not had to come clean on the broken promise is because the final year of expenditure falls after the next general election and will therefore be the problem for the next government, not this one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldsmith specifically pointed to the Prime Minister as being responsible for the \u201cgovernment\u2019s apathy,\u201d writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Goldsmith\u2019s resignation follows a rebuke on Thursday in a special report issued by the Privileges Committee as part of a group of MPs and peers who interfered with the Boris Johnson \u201cPartygate\u201d probe in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It has been a privilege to have been able to make a difference to a cause I have been committed to for as long as I remember. But this govt\u2019s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we face makes continuing in my role untenable. Reluctantly I am therefore stepping down pic.twitter.com\/KDJKN3i6ER<\/a><\/p>— Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) June 30, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>