John Kerry warns Liz Truss not to 'jigger' with climate change taxes

US President Joe Biden's climate envoy John Kerry has warned Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss not to 'stumble' with UK plans to reach net zero emissions carbon emissions by reducing green levies, which help pay for the transition to clean energy.< /p>

Ms Truss said she supported the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, but wanted to suspend levies, which add 8% to energy bills, to do so "in a way that doesn't harm people and businesses".

But Mr Kerry said any savings from Tax giveaways would be far outweighed by the cost of extreme weather if global warming went unchecked.

If he insisted he didn't want to interfere in choosing the next prime minister Briton, he said he would "conspicuously and categorically" advise against any attempt ve aimed to water down the carbon reduction pledges confirmed at last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Responding to Ms Truss' plans, he told The World This Weekend from BBC Radio 4: "I obviously don't want to get involved in the leaders' decision regarding the next few weeks and what will happen in the UK.

Recommended

"But I will say very clearly and categorically: we are late. We don't have the luxury of fidgeting with 2050 right now, as we're currently heading for global warming somewhere between 2.5C and 3.5C.

"The world is already warmed by 1.1 C, almost 1.2 C. The cushion we have between 1.5 and that is obviously tiny.

"And we see what is happening with the damage to the planet at 1.1C. Imagine when you hit 1.5C.

“Every tenth of a degree we heat up is going to cost us trillions of dollars more. or the gift that there is now at the expense of the climate, it will absolutely be replaced by the cost of damage. I support net zero. However, we must provide it in a way that does not harm people and businesses

"That's why I would put a moratorium on the green levy and remove it from general taxation so that we can ease the pressure and find better ways to 'achieve net zero."