PBS’s Christiane Amanpour welcomed former Vice President Al Gore to her Wednesday program to join her in attacking British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he will be delaying certain aspects of the country’s climate initiatives with Gore going so far as to declare young people feel “stabbed in the back.”
A dumbfounded Amanpour couldn’t believe it was even possible for Sunak to do such a thing, “One of the permanent five members of the Security Council, the British prime minister today decides to roll back or slow walk the U.K.'s net zero and green energy policies. How is that possible? What does it say, actually?”
Viewers could be forgiven for wondering what Sunak did that was so horrible because Amanpour never gave that information. Sunak simply moved the date from banning all new gas-powered cars back from 2030 to 2035, citing the economic costs on ordinary people. He also promised not to raise the airport tax and pushed the transition from boilers to heat pumps for home heating back to 2035 from the originally planned 2026.
If anything, Sunak moved Britain from the radical environmentalist to the only-slightly-less radical environmentalist position, but it still wasn’t good enough for Amanpour. Neither, was it acceptable for Gore, “Well, first of all, I'm not a citizen of the United Kingdom and it will be for the people of the U.K. to decide how to react to this. But I will say on a personal basis, I find it shocking and really disappointing, of course. I think he's done the wrong thing.”
Gore also claimed, “I've heard from many of my friends in the U.K., including a lot of Conservative Party members, by the way, who have used the phrase "utter disgust." And some of the young people there feel as if their generation has been stabbed in the back. I mean, it's really shocking to me. But again, this is an issue for the U.K. to handle.”
That just proves that people in Gore’s bubble tell him what he wants to hear (the British people overwhelmingly support Sunak's move) and despite his provocative rhetoric, Amanpour wanted Gore to go further:
Yeah, but you've weighed in as a global climate leader. So, I want you to know what you think as a politician and as an expert. He claims, Sunak, that this will not deter or slow down or hurt Britain's capacity to meet net zero goal by 2050. And his home secretary, who I'm not sure her credentials on climate knowledge, but says, ‘we are not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people.’ There are a couple things in there, really.’
Amanpour, who loves to say, especially on the environment, that reporters should be “truthful, not neutral” apparently doesn’t know how pricing works.
Despite earlier claiming that he didn’t want to get involved in British politics, Gore replied by not-so subtly suggesting the British people throw out the Conservative government:
Well, look, there are people who have very close relationships with the fossil fuel polluters, who have learned how to deflect the blame for doing whatever the fossil fuel companies want them to do. And again, this is an issue for the U.K. I'm uncomfortable not being a citizen there speaking up in their political system. But from a global perspective, this is not what the world needs from the United Kingdom. And I hope and expect that—well, I don’t know-- maybe the people of the U.K. will bring about a change in the nation's perspective, and even possibly the leadership. I don't know about that.
One country not raising its airport taxes or pushing the banning of gas and diesel-powered cars back five years is not going to destroy the planet. That’s truthful, not neutral.
Here is a transcript for the September 20 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
9/20/2023
11:28 PM ET
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And what do we have? One of the permanent five members of the Security Council, the British prime minister today decides to roll back or slow walk the U.K.'s net zero and green energy policies. How is that possible? What does it say, actually?
AL GORE: Well, first of all, I'm not a citizen of the United Kingdom and it will be for the people of the U.K. to decide how to react to this. But I will say on a personal basis, I find it shocking and really disappointing, of course. I think he's done the wrong thing.
I've heard from many of my friends in the U.K., including a lot of Conservative Party members, by the way, who have used the phrase "utter disgust." And some of the young people there feel as if their generation has been stabbed in the back. I mean, it's really shocking to me. But again, this is an issue for the U.K. to handle.
AMANPOUR: Yeah, but you've weighed in as a global climate leader. So, I want you to know what you think as a politician and as an expert. He claims, Sunak, that this will not deter or slow down or hurt Britain's capacity to meet net zero goal by 2050. And his home secretary, who I'm not sure her credentials on climate knowledge, but says, "we are not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people." There are a couple things in there, really.
GORE: Well, look, there are people who have very close relationships with the fossil fuel polluters, who have learned how to deflect the blame for doing whatever the fossil fuel companies want them to do. And again, this is an issue for the U.K. I'm uncomfortable not being a citizen there speaking up in their political system. But from a global perspective, this is not what the world needs from the United Kingdom.
And I hope and expect that—well, I don’t know-- maybe the people of the U.K. will bring about a change in the nation's perspective, and even possibly the leadership. I don't know about that.
AMANPOUR: But you know what's interesting, the U.K. used to be a known global leader on all of this.
GORE: Yes, yes.
AMANPOUR: So, it really is a change.
GORE: Yes.
