Don’t Look Down! The Reality of Boris Johnson’s Climate Politics
| Author | David Whyte |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058221127471 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
SEPTEMBER 2022•POLITICAL INSIGHT33
Boris Johnson’s time as Prime
Minister will be remembered
for many things. The Lulu Lytle
interior design; the treehouse
for his young son; the suitcases of booze
and those Downing Street parties. But
amidst all the scandals, arguably the most
important, is the one for which Johnson
will probably never be held to account: his
turbo-charged revitalisation of UK oil and
gas production.
When future historians explore the
significance of the choices made after
Britain’s hosting of COP26 in Glasgow, they
are likely to conclude that it was in this
period, more than any other in recent years,
that the UK government abandoned any
realistic strategy of decarbonisation. This
fateful decision will be Johnson’s legacy.
Rhetoric from reality
When it comes to Boris Johnson’s climate
policies, it is important to separate
rhetoric from reality. In October 2021,
the UK government set out a ‘landmark
strategy’ committing to delivering net zero
As Prime Minister, Boris Johnson often talked up his green
credentials, but behind the rhetoric his policies super-charged the
UK’s oil and gas industry, argues David Whyte.
Don’t Look Down!
The Reality of Boris
Johnson’s Climate Politics
emissions by 2050. But barely six months
later, in April 2022, it commissioned a new
scientific review of shale gas. All signs
are that it is using this review to restart
onshore fracking in the UK. (Famously in
2012, Johnson had described fracking as a
‘miracle’.)
Even the windfall tax on oil and gas
companies belatedly introduced by
Johnson’s then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak,
came with a major loophole: a 91 per cent
rebate on the value of projects developing
oil and gas North Sea. It is thought that
this sweetener, designed to accelerate
development of the North Sea, may
actually be worth more to Big Oil than the
value lost to the windfall tax.
In early June, the development of the
© POOL / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight September 2022 BU.indd 33Political Insight September 2022 BU.indd 3309/08/2022 12:5909/08/2022 12:59
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