Two Days After Urging a BBQ Ban, Burnham's Government Opens Consultation to Gut EV Sales Mandate

Two Days After Andy Burnham Urged a BBQ Ban, UK Government Opens Consultation to Gut EV Sales Mandate

Since this week's emergency Cobra meeting on wildfires, in which Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham called Britain a "tinderbox" and pushed retailers to pull disposable barbecues from shelves, the UK government has opened a consultation that could weaken one of the UK's central climate policies.

On Friday, the government launched a consultation on cutting the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, the rule requiring automakers to sell a rising share of pure electric cars each year. Under current law, that target climbs from 33% this year to 80% by 2030, backed by a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales. The consultation lays out four options: leave the 80% target alone, or cut it to 70%, 60%, or as low as 50%.

According to the Guardian, weakening the mandate that far could add millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to UK emissions annually. The Climate Change Committee, the government's own independent climate advisory body, has identified the EV transition as the single biggest lever for cutting UK carbon pollution over the next decade, per the Guardian's reporting.

Timing draws criticism

The consultation landed hours after the UK recorded its hottest day of the year and the fifth-hottest on record, following five heatwaves this summer, according to the Guardian. Grassfires tied to drought conditions burned down homes in the West Midlands on Thursday, the traditional heartland of Britain's auto industry.

Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, called the move "a wrong turn for drivers, energy security, our climate and the economy," telling the Guardian that "both the Iran war and this summer's extreme weather have shown once again why we're better off cutting our dependence on fossil fuels."

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander defended the review, saying targets need to "remain pro-business and grounded in the real world." She said: "It's right we keep targets under review to ensure they're practical and back British industry. The end goal hasn't changed, but we need to take business with us on the journey."

The industry's case

The strongest argument for loosening the mandate comes from carmakers themselves. According to the Guardian, the auto industry says the current targets force manufacturers to sell EVs at steep discounts just to hit quotas, eating into margins on every unit sold. Industry representatives have warned of job losses or even factory closures in the UK if the rules aren't changed.

Electric car sales have climbed 29% in the UK this year, per the Guardian, which on its face looks like strong momentum. A sales increase driven partly by manufacturer discounting to avoid fines is a different story than organic consumer demand, and it's fair for an industry facing thinner margins and competitive pressure from Chinese EV makers to ask regulators to recalibrate rather than force an arbitrary compliance cliff.

The charging infrastructure industry, which has committed billions of pounds to installing charge points nationwide on the assumption that the 80% target would hold, opposes the change, according to the Guardian. A weaker mandate undercuts the business case for that investment.

What Burnham actually said this week

The wildfire response itself has been extensive. Burnham, as Mayor of Greater Manchester, deployed 100 military personnel to help fight more than 30 blazes in South Wales, according to the BBC and the Telegraph, and said aerial firefighting planes, the kind used in Europe and the US, would be commissioned nationally after acknowledging the UK currently has no water-bombing aircraft. He also promised a summit with fire services and emergency financial support, per the Standard.

He described "37 fires smouldering around the country" and said Britain needs to "face up" to the "changing climate" and transition to "more clean energy," according to the Standard. West Midlands blazes destroyed 19 houses on Thursday, the Telegraph reported, with fire investigators looking into whether some fires were linked to A-level students burning notepads and using barbecues to celebrate results day, though a West Midlands Fire Service spokesman said it was too early to assign blame to any group.

The contradiction, and the counterargument to it

Burnham's own rhetoric this week, that Britain needs to move toward clean energy and confront climate change, sits uneasily next to the national government's same-week consultation on rolling back the UK's largest emissions-cutting policy for road transport. Greenpeace's McCarthy made exactly that point.

But the government's defenders would say a sales mandate that forces discounting and threatens factory jobs isn't the same thing as climate ambition. Alexander's argument, that targets need to stay "grounded in the real world," is a legitimate one if EV manufacturers genuinely can't meet the ramp without heavy losses. Whether that's actually true, or whether it's industry lobbying dressed up as economic necessity, is exactly what the consultation is supposed to establish.

The consultation period will determine which of the four options, if any, the government adopts. No final decision has been made. The Climate Change Committee has not yet issued a formal response to the specific consultation, and it remains unclear how long the review will take before ministers set a revised target.