19th September 2025
Interestingly, lack of political will is seen as a key factor in the failure of governments to address climate change.
“Political cowardice is hindering European efforts to face up to the effects of the climate crisis, even as the continent is pummelled by a record-breaking heatwave, the EU’s green transition chief [Teresa Ribera] has warned.…A major part of the problem, she added, was that some political parties “continue to insist, quite vehemently, that climate change does not exist”, or else say that taking decisions to adapt to environmental realities is too expensive. ‘You can’t tell people that climate change is the great existential problem of our generation, and then say, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to do anything”’. (1)
Whilst here in the UK, successive governments are reluctant to enact the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee – a committee set up by Parliament and tasked with researching how the UK can successfully transition to net zero, mitigating our environmental footprint and adapting our infrastructure commensurate with the already built -in impacts of climate change. Twice now Friends of the Earth and Client Earth have challenged the adequacy of government plans in the courts and won the legal argument. (2) The government has now to issue a new climate plan which should be published October 2025. (3)
(2) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/whats-uks-climate-plan-and-why-do-we-need-new-one
(3) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/latest/govt-publish-new-climate-action-plan-october
The Green Tau 