The UK government found itself caught in a classic socio-economic dilemma: protect the industrial jobs of today or mandate the green future of tomorrow? Its decision to weaken the ZEV mandate suggests it prioritised the former.
The automotive industry’s lobbying campaign was laser-focused on the threat to its workforce. Arguments from BMW about its 8,000 UK staff and from the SMMT about the risk of “de-industrialisation” created a powerful narrative that cast the environmental policy as a direct threat to working-class communities reliant on car manufacturing.
This put the government in a difficult political position. Siding with the mandate could be portrayed as abandoning traditional industrial heartlands. Siding with the carmakers could be portrayed as abandoning its climate commitments.
By choosing to introduce “flexibilities,” the government attempted to find a middle ground, but has been criticised by both sides. Climate campaigners see a failure of nerve, while the episode highlights the profound social and political challenges of managing a green transition that impacts established, labour-intensive industries.
