SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood MP has described Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s seismic u-turn on the action needed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as ‘cynical opportunism dressed up as difficult decision making’.

Mr Eastwood recently sponsored Private Members legislation in the House of Commons that would have levied a green jobs tax on multinational companies to deliver new opportunities in ecologically sustainable technologies.

Colum Eastwood MP said:

“Rishi Sunak’s shameless U-turn on the scale of action needed to halt the irreversible breakdown of our climate is a cynical stunt by a Prime Minister who hasn’t yet realised that his days in government are numbered. Today’s announcement is cynical opportunism dressed up as difficult decision making.

“While other advanced economies are meeting on the fringes of the UN General Assembly to discuss how the international community can accelerate the move to net-zero, it is astounding that Britain is pulling the brakes on urgent action to challenge the greatest threat that our planet faces.

“That the Prime Minister would make an announcement of this nature while Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake on these islands, is experiencing an ecological crisis is a damning indictment of his leadership and his government.

“The independent Climate Change Committee said earlier this year that Britain had lost its global leadership position on climate change. Industry leaders have vocally protested the incoherence, inconsistency and reckless nature of what Rishi Sunk has announced today. This weak, directionless approach cannot continue. A Labour government is badly needed.”