The UK will “tone down” global warming positions in international trade deals to focus on job and wealth creation, according to leaked government documents.
The documents, obtained by UK’s The Times and published Sunday, instruct British trade negotiators to shift focus less from global warming concerns and preventing the illegal wildlife trade to making the country “a great, global trading nation.”
“You have a crucial role to play in posts in implementing our new approach to prosperity against the huge changes stemming from last year’s Brexit vote,” reads the documents. “Trade and growth are now priorities for all posts — you will all need to prioritise developing capability in this area. Some economic security-related work like climate change and illegal wildlife trade will be scaled down.”
The idea is to make it easier to sign trade deals with countries in Latin America and Africa. Trade arrangements with these countries regularly get bogged over concerns that environmental protections will be put ahead of economic prosperity.
High energy costs have caused British companies to leave the UK, killing off or threatening an estimated 40,000 jobs.
UK residents already pay 54 percent more for electricity than Americans, and energy taxes cost residents roughly $6.6 billion a year. Green energy subsidies regularly exceed spending caps and account for roughly 7 percent of British energy bills, according to a government study released in July.
Polls indicate 38 percent of British households are cutting back essential purchases, like food, to pay for high energy bills. Another 59 percent of homes are worried about how they are going to pay energy bills.
A single piece of government legislation, the Climate Change Act of 2008, is could cost the average British household $13,700 by 2030, according to a report by The Global Warming Policy Foundation. The total costs of the policy will eventually add up to three times the annual British National Health Service budget.
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