In 2019, the government put the goal of reaching net zero by 2050 into law, but recently the future of the Conservative Party’s green agenda has been the subject of intense debate.

Sparked by its narrow win in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election – a battle fought and won by the Conservatives’ opposition to London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scheme – some in the party have been calling for a rethink of their current climate commitments, while others demanded the government stayed on track with its pledges.

But the former camp seems to have won over the prime minister, with Rishi Sunak announcing his plans to ditch or delay a number of climate policies.

Making a surprise speech in Downing Street, he insisted he believed in achieving the net zero goal, but said there needed to be a change in approach or we would “risk losing the consent of the British people” for the policies.

Standing in front of a lectern promising “long-term decisions for a brighter future”, he said families should not face “unacceptable costs” to go green, adding: “No one in Westminster politics has yet had the courage to look people in the eye and explain what’s really involved. That’s wrong, and it changes now.”

So what were the climate pledges from the government? And which ones are now being axed by Mr Sunak?

Reaching net zero by 2050

The overarching promise from the Conservative government was to ensure the UK reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 100% from 1990 levels by 2050.

The measure was made law by Theresa May in the dying days of her premiership back in 2019 and it was backed by Boris Johnson throughout his time in Number 10.

But when Liz Truss entered Downing Street, she ordered a review into the target – though her stint ended before it came to pass – showing not everyone in the party was on board.

Mr Sunak has insisted he is committed to the pledge – even after the changes he has announced.

But questions have been raised over whether the government is doing enough to even meet the target, with the Climate Change Committee warning progress had been “worryingly slow”, and time is “very short” to correct the path.

Phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2030

In 2020, then prime minister Mr Johnson made a commitment to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK after 2030 – bringing the target forward by 10 years.

The £12bn plan promised to accelerate the rollout of charge points for electric vehicles, as well as the development and mass production of electric vehicle batteries, in an attempt to lower emissions and clean up the air.

Number 10 was saying as recently as August that Mr Sunak was committed to the 2030 date, though they hinted the ban was to be kept under review to ensure the prime minister’s promise to be “proportionate and pragmatic” with climate policies was kept.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove also doubled down over the summer on keeping to the pledge, saying the target is “immoveable”.

But Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch was understood to be pushing back on one element – fining car manufacturers if they don’t meet the target of making at least 22% of the cars they sell electric by 2024.

Current rules would mean a company would be subject to a £15,000 fine for every vehicle that does not comply.

Now, Mr Sunak has confirmed the deadline will be pushed back by five years to 2035 – despite calls from the industry to keep the measure.

He said by 2030 “the vast majority of cars sold” would be electric, but he said he believed that “at least for now, it should be you the consumer that makes that choice, not government forcing you to do it”.

Energy efficient landlords

Another pledge made by Mr Johnson in 2020 was to ensure all privately rented homes had an energy efficiency rating of C or better – where A is the best and G is the worst – by 2028.

While the plan could be costly for landlords, it would lead to a reduction in bills for many renters and stop leaky homes adding to emissions.

Mr Gove, the former environment secretary who is now the minister in charge of housing, said back in July he wanted to see the government “relax the pace” of the 2028 deadline, adding: “We’re asking too much too quickly”.

But Mr Sunak has now insisted no property owners would be “forced” into making “expensive upgrades”, and will only have to do so “when they can”.

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The future of boilers

The ambition for all new heating system installations to be low carbon by 2035 – accompanied by a pot of £450m to help with household grants – is being watered down.

The prime minister confirmed there would be a new exemption for around a fifth of homes, so that “households who will most struggle to make the switch to heat pumps or other low-carbon alternatives won’t have to do so”.

However, he said the grant available for boiler upgrades for those who do want to change to a greener alternative would increase from £5,000 to £7,500.

There had been a target in place to ensure all new homes were built with an alternative to a gas boiler – such as a heat pump – after 2025, but Downing Street would not confirm if that target remained in place.

But Mr Sunak did announce that the plan to ban all off-grid oil boilers by 2026 was now being delayed to 2035.

Hydrogen levy

Another move that already appears to have been shelved is the introduction of an annual levy to cover the cost of producing low-carbon hydrogen, instead of using fossil fuels, for energy at home.

The fee – which was expected to cost households around £118 a year – was due to be added to bills in 2025, and would help cut emissions by cleaning up the energy market.

But former energy security secretary Grant Shapps – who was recently appointed defence secretary – made numerous protestations about the cost being borne by people rather than companies, and has pledged numerous times to find another way of funding the change.

What else is being chopped?

A number of policies that hadn’t been announced have been pre-emptively scrapped by Mr Sunak.

He said he would rule out policy ideas requiring people to share cars, eat less meat and dairy, or have seven bins to hit recycling targets.

The prime minister also said he would not put forward any plans to discourage their flying by taxing it further.

“There will be resistance – and we will meet it,” he said.

What about the other parties?

When it comes to Labour, one of Sir Keir Starmer’s missions for government is to “make Britain a green energy super power”.

The party said, if it got into power, it would cut bills and increase energy security by making all electricity zero-carbon by 2030, and carry out upgrades to 19 million homes to make sure they are insulated.

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It would also create a new publicly owned company called GB Energy, tasked with championing clean energy, increasing jobs and building better supply chains.

But Labour has backtracked on its £28bn a year investment pledge to accelerate the shift towards net zero, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves blaming rising interest rates and the “damage” the Conservatives had done to the economy since the announcement was made.

The Liberal Democrats have a raft of green policy proposals, including upgrading insulation in all existing homes by 2030 and ensuring all new builds are “eco friendly”.

Other measures include investing to get 80% of the UK’s electricity from green energy by 2030, and creating a £20bn Clean Air Fund to create walking and cycling routes to schools, and investment in pollution-free public transport.