Jersey’s Environment Minister has acknowledged that the government may have been “hypocritical” in its approach to climate policy after experts accused ministers of sending “contradictory signals” on the Island’s path to net zero.
Speaking in the States Assembly on Monday afternoon, Deputy Steve Luce accepted that the criticism contained in a newly published review of Jersey’s Carbon Neutral Roadmap had some justification.
“There could well be some some hypocrisy aimed at government,” he told Members, after chief Environment policy scrutineer Deputy Hilary Jeune asked for his response to the headline of Express’s lead story and daily news email, ‘Is the government guilty of climate hypocrisy?’.
The independent Climate Council’s wide-ranging report had warned that Jersey is not currently on track to meet its 2030 climate targets and that key elements of the transition risk being undermined by inconsistent policy decisions.
Among the examples cited by the panel – which is chaired by the leader of BP’s Alternative Energy business – was the government’s continued installation of fossil-fuel heating systems in public buildings, despite encouraging Islanders to move away from oil and gas in their own homes.
Deputy Luce acknowledged that point directly in response to Deputy Jeune’s questioning.
“It’s not that long ago that we made some decisions to reinstall carbon-burning boilers in schools and other large public buildings, and that’s the sort of hypocrisy that the Council will be talking about,” he said.
“If government are going to say, ‘We need to go for low-carbon’, it’s going to be somehow incumbent upon government to make sure that we we walk the walk and not just talk the talk.”
The 110-page Climate Council review concluded that the current trajectory means Jersey’s interim 2030 targets are “unachievable”, even though the longer-term aim of reaching net zero by 2050 remains viable.
The council also criticised the fairness of some policies designed to accelerate the transition, warning that subsidies had been “skewed towards the wealthy” and that the “polluter pays” principle had at times been “weakened or abandoned”.
Deputy Luce told the Assembly that ministers had previously faced similar criticism when the government introduced grants to support the purchase of electric vehicles.
“There will be other areas where we may in the past not been quite as good as others – certainly at the start of granting money for electric vehicles, it was certainly aimed at us that we were subsidising people who could afford to buy those vehicles in the first place,” he said.
“And, in the early days, that may have been the case, but certainly, I would say in most recent times, the grant scheme has aided more used vehicles than new vehicles coming into the island.”
He acknowledged that further changes may be needed to ensure the costs of decarbonisation are shared more fairly, particularly for lower-income households.
“There will be other areas where the climate council have criticised us for not being fair enough, and I think in the future, we will certainly have to look at ways of helping those less well off,” he said.
One option, he suggested, could involve using environmental levies to fund support for those struggling with the cost of the transition.
“We need to do that by maybe increasing, or looking to increase, the levy on fuel duty in order that we can have some money back to help those less able to pay,” he said.
“There may be other areas or similar veins where we have a levy in order to help those who are less well off.”
Providing some of his own suggestions, Deputy Luce said that a more flexible approach could be considered in future, including options such as allowing households to continue using oil heating but with higher levies, or focusing more heavily on energy efficiency.
“Rather than insisting that people move to electricity, maybe allowing them to continue to burn oil at a larger levy on that oil… or we look to increase insulation on all property regardless of how it is fuelled to use less energy and less oil.”
In its recommendations, the panel also urged ministers to strengthen the “polluter pays” principle and make firmer commitments to phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles and fossil-fuel boilers. It said clearer timelines for these transitions were needed to give businesses and households confidence to invest.
Other recommendations included prioritising a new waste strategy to reduce reliance on the Island’s Energy Recovery Facility, encouraging behavioural changes to cut energy use, and developing financial tools such as green bonds or mortgages to help fund the transition.
The report also highlighted the need to invest in skills, particularly in areas such as sustainable finance and infrastructure transition.
Deputy Luce said the report now presented a challenge for the next government to consider how the Island’s climate policies should evolve.
“To the Deputy’s point, there is work to do, clearly, and it’s going to be incumbent upon the next Minister to analyse the outcome of this climate council report,” he said.
