Burnham criticised for EV and North Sea approach amid climate crisis

The UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, speaks to staff during a visit to the Met Office weather and climate service in Exeter on Friday. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/AFP/ View image in fullscreen The UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, speaks to staff during a visit to the Met Office weather and climate service in Exeter on Friday. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/AFP/ Burnham criticised for EV and North Sea approach amid climate crisis Cut in electric vehicle sales targets could add millions of tonnes of CO2 to emissions in UK, say green campaigners Andy Burnham has been criticised for moving to cut electric vehicle (EV) sales targets and accept North Sea drilling at a time of devastating wildfires caused . The prime minister for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the climate crisis was behind hundreds of wildfires that have ripped across the parts of the UK. The scale of the disaster has prompted the government to bring in the military, ban the sale of disposable barbecues and activate the national alert system to issue safety advice to people across England and Wales in areas at risk on Friday night. However, Burnham was also accused of failing to take the push for net zero seriously enough, as the government took steps towards watering down EV targets on the same day. View image in fullscreen Several homes in Stourbridge in the West Midlands were destroyed as a result of wildfires this week. Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty ImagesThe government on Friday launched a consultation on cutting the target for new EVs to as little as 50% of all new cars in 2030, down from 80% under existing rules, in proposals that could add millions of tonnes a year to the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. The consultation will include several options, including leaving the headline target unchanged, or cutting it to 70%, 60% or 50%. In a video from the West Midlands, where homes have been destroyed and dozens of people injured, Burnham appeared to acknowledge the seriousness of the climate crisis. “We cannot accept this as the new normal,” he said. “This isn’t happening in isolation. “Much of England and Wales is in drought and we are in another period of extreme heat. Farmers are watching crops fail and firefighters have faced hundreds of wildfires in a matter of weeks. This is what climate change looks like, here and now.” View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham and the West Midlands mayor, Richard Parker, right, with the West Midlands chief fire officer, Simon Tuhill, during a visit to Stourbridge on Friday.