LONDON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A recent poll found out British voters are "largely pessimistic" about Britain's hopes of achieving net zero emissions, The Times reported on Saturday.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a series of relaxations of key climate policies this week, including delaying the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.
Many of Sunak's decisions are popular, but British people are skeptical about the reasons behind them, said the British newspaper.
"Britain is evenly split on Sunak's decision to relax a host of net zero measures on the grounds that they were too costly, with 36 percent supporting and 35 percent opposed," said the report, quoting a YouGov poll for The Times.
Sunak insisted that Britain could still meet its climate targets and what he was doing is to lower the costs of making the transition, however, only 18 percent agreed that Britain would still hit net zero after Sunak's changes, according to the report.
"By contrast, 34 percent think Britain is now less likely to hit its 2050 goal and 32 percent said it was going to be missed anyway," said The Times.
The report noted that there has been "widespread cynicism" about Sunak's motivation for the changes.
About 34 percent thought the changes were made to create "political dividing lines with Labour" while 37 percent said it is because previous policies were not practically achievable, according to the report.
