UK climate watchdog chief quits as Sunak green policy comes under fire

The head of the UK’s independent climate change body, who has been consistently critical of government efforts, has quit the role at a time when the nation’s climate leadership under the Conservatives has been questioned.

The departure of Chris Stark in April, after six years as chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, may leave the organisation without both a chief executive and permanent chair, after Lord Deben stepped down last year without a replacement.

Stark’s resignation comes just months after prime minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to roll back a series of green measures, as well as drawing up legislation to encourage more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

Under Sunak, the UK’s position as a world leader on climate change is regarded by many experts as slipping. Former UN COP26 president and cabinet minister Alok Sharma said this week the legislation had given the impression the UK was “rolling back on climate action”.

Lord Deben, another former Tory minister, also said that the UK had “lost the leadership” on climate action with decisions such as the North Sea development.

Stark, who is set to join the net zero advisory group Carbon Trust as chief executive, became the government’s chief climate adviser at a time when the UK enacted net zero, becoming the first major economy to do so.

The CCC provides independent advice for the government’s net zero 2050 targets and also the so-called carbon budgets, which restrict the amount of greenhouse gases Britain can emit over five-year periods towards the goals. Its chief economist James Richardson will serve as interim chief executive until a permanent appointment is made.

Energy security secretary Claire Coutinho said Stark “has seen many advances” over climate change policy in the UK, and the interim CCC chair, Piers Forster, said he had been “a powerful voice for the committee” and “ensured our advice has been heard widely and with style”.

Under Stark the committee has been a persistent critic of the Tory government, despite ministers’ insistence that the UK has outperformed other G7 economies on cutting emissions on a historical basis. 

In June last year the committee issued a withering report claiming that not enough homes were being insulated, there was little progress on transport emissions and new wind and solar farm installation was too slow. 

Last September, Stark accused the government of “wishful thinking” for suggesting the UK was on course to meet its emissions reductions targets, following the prime minister’s decision to delay several green targets involving the phaseout of gas boilers and new petrol and diesel cars. 

Asked whether he was ignoring his own statutory climate advisers, Sunak infuriated some green campaigners by his dismissive reply that “everyone’s entitled to their view” while expressing confidence about UK climate goals.

The government has taken its time in replacing Lord Deben as chair. His departure announced in 2022 before he finally stepped down last summer. The chair of the CCC also typically recruits the chief executive.

Lord David Willetts, a former Tory minister known as “two Brains” for his intellectual mien, is widely considered to be the frontrunner as CCC chair. 

Willetts, a figure on the centrist wing of the Conservative party, is president of the Resolution Foundation think-tank and chair of the UK Space Agency. 

Emma Howard Boyd, former chair of the Environment Agency, has also applied for the position, according to officials, as has Chris Skidmore, the former energy minister who this week quit as a Tory MP. 

Stark said the CCC “is in great shape for its next phase of work. I’ll continue to be one of its loudest supporters”.

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