In his speech following the Conservatives’s general election victory, Boris Johnson vowed to make the UK the “cleanest, greenest country on Earth” and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 – a target which 70 per cent of voters support. But that Holy Grail of post-Brexit sovereignty – a free trade agreement with the US – risks thwarting these promises.
Concerns about divergence from the EU and a trade deal with the US have been raised consistently throughout the Brexit debate, ranging from food standards to NHS privatisation to the threat to the British automotive industry. But less attention has been devoted to the consequences for the UK’s climate change goals.
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