Burnham says climate action must be affordable across incomes

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged governments and industry to make electric cars and heat pumps affordable across income groups at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey. POLITICO Europe reported his remarks on 12 November; the report does not state the day he spoke.

• Burnham reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
• He said electrification in transport, heat and industry could provide “clean power, cheap power”.
• He supported the hosts’ electrification push but did not endorse their target of meeting 35% of global energy use with electricity by 2035.

Burnham said the world had not moved as quickly as he had hoped over the previous five years to show people the cost-of-living benefits of climate action. He argued that electrification could help make power cheaper, while warning that the technologies were not available to everyone across income groups.

That appeal came against a domestic policy backdrop of a reduced heat-pump subsidy pot in the previous month’s budget. POLITICO Europe reported that ministers were weighing proposals to weaken industry electric-vehicle quotas; no decision or timetable was given in the report.

Climate warnings at COP31

The affordability debate was part of a summit where leaders also warned about climate impacts. The Guardian reported that Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said a failure to respond overwhelmingly to the crisis would mean “the world we know is over”. Heine described seeing coral near her home island bright and lush in July, then bleached white months later; the report did not specify the year of that observation.

The Guardian also reported Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s warning that governments had not tried hard enough to curb emissions since the Paris agreement. Mottley said warming would reach 2.8°C under current policies, or 2.6°C even if every pledge were delivered; those figures were her remarks at the summit.

What it means

Burnham’s argument tied the UK’s net-zero commitment to whether households can afford the technologies involved. He said the government was subsidising upfront costs, while the recent reduction in the heat-pump subsidy pot and the proposals under consideration for EV quotas show the policy context for his appeal. He also voiced support for electrification without backing the hosts’ specific 2035 global target.