Thank you for following our live coverage of reaction to the PM's plan to shift UK green policies.

Here's a reminder of some of the things we heard today:

• In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rishi Sunak said he was "absolutely not" slowing down efforts to tackle climate change
• He defended his suggestion that he was scrapping policies which included taxing meat, compulsory lift sharing, and making people use seven bins
• BBC political editor Chris Mason said Sunak is choosing "to embrace this argument and so is embracing the noise it is generating"
• The SNP has said rowing back on green pledges is "selfish and irresponsible"
• Appearing at an agricultural college in Chelmsford, the prime minister has brushed off suggestions his government could face a legal challenge
• Earlier, Labour's shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said "yesterday was a bad day for “our economy, our prosperity and for Britain"

To get a better grasp of the issues at hand, you could check out our article on what net zero actually means, and have a look at this simple guide to climate change. And here are some of the key takeaways following the PM's speech yesterday.

You can also read our main story here.

Thank you for following along from the team here, editors Rob Corp and Nathan Williams, and our writers Anna Boyd, Michael Sheils McNamee, and Ali Abbas Ahmadi.

Claire Marshall
Environment correspondent, BBC News

Rural areas face unique issues in terms of transitioning to net zero.

A significant proportion of the ageing rural housing stock is off the gas grid, using heating oil instead.

As a result, countryside business groups are largely welcoming Rishi Sunak’s U-turn.

The Countryside Land and Business Association said it had "achieved lobbying wins" on what it called the "government climbdown".

The Countryside Alliance said the ban on off-grid boilers would have affected one million – largely rural – households and the prime minister was right to delay the ban.

However, countryside housing association English Rural said the need to decarbonise rural homes wasn’t "just an environmental imperative but also a social one" and the government wasn’t giving the right resources or incentives.

Public not confident UK on track for net zeropublished at 12:48 British Summer Time 21 September 2023

12:48 BST 21 September 2023

A government survey back in June suggested seven in 10 people were not confident that the UK is on track to meet the Net Zero target by 2050.

This was before the announcement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday.

About the same number thought the transition to net zero would increase their living expenses in the next year or two which is the timescale for the next election.

Even in the long term, half of people still expected to see an increase.

The survey was run in June and July 2023 by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the full results can be found here, external.

These figures show the path the government has to tread with the general public to get them on side.

How much is new in the boilers announcement?published at 12:35 British Summer Time 21 September 2023

12:35 BST 21 September 2023

The change to government policy on installing new boilers will not affect most households.

The plan was, external to phase out the installation of new natural gas boilers from 2035, which is still the policy.

But there are some changes. The first is that there will be exemptions to that 2035 ban for about 20% of properties where it would be most difficult to move to lower-emission alternatives such as heat pumps.

Also, in 2026 the government was proposing to start phasing out the installation of boilers powered by oil and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) for properties that could not get gas. The ban has now been moved to 2035.

In addition the grant available to help cover the cost of installing heat pumps in England and Wales is going up from £5,000 to £7,500.

And if you’re wondering why 2035 is the date that keeps coming up – the life of a gas boiler is estimated to be 15 years, so if you get a new one installed after that date, as will now be allowed for a fifth of homes, it is likely you will still be using it in 2050 when the UK has pledged to achieve net zero.

You can read more about the boiler upgrade scheme and heat pumps here.

Rishi Sunak has been out and about this morning following his announcement, appearing at an agricultural college in Chelmsford where he said he is "absolutely confident" that the government is on course to meet its net zero targets, despite the announced changes.

The prime minister dismissed the potential for a legal challenge, saying he was confident climate change targets would still be met.

The government has previously faced legal challenges earlier this year over the Climate Change Act, and the former chair of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben has said the recent changes could be grounds for a legal challenge.

"The reason I have confidence in that is because we've overdelivered on all of our carbon budgets to date, despite everyone saying you might not hit them - we've overdelivered on them," he said.

Mark Poynting
Climate and environment researcher, BBC Verify

Rishi Sunak told the BBC’s Today programme that the government had "absolute belief" that it would still hit its legally binding targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But even before these policy shifts were announced, there were warnings that the UK's future targets were at risk.

In June, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) – the government’s independent advisers – called progress "worryingly slow" and called for more urgent action.

A few of the measures announced by Sunak may help – for example the increase in grants to upgrade from gas boilers to heat pumps.

But most amount to a pushback in policies – like the delay to the new petrol car ban or scrapping some energy efficiency measures.

"If we do everything slower, we're just going to make it more difficult to reach that target," said Prof Myles Allen of the University of Oxford.

This is because the amount of carbon the UK can emit is set out in carbon budgets – and additional emissions in one area will necessitate cuts in others, which won’t be easy to achieve.

Chris Stark, the CCC’s chief executive, told the Today programme that Sunak was guilty of "wishful thinking" if he thought net zero goals could be achieved with this "softer package" of green policies.

That’s certainly the view of all the other scientists we’ve spoken to - but the PM is gambling that the UK will outperform these forecasts.

• You can read more here about whether the changes threaten the UK's net zero goals

Chris is a plumbing and heating engineer in Birmingham.

Speaking to the BBC's Radio 5 Live, he says "change needs to happen" but is unclear how to make it work for everyone.

He was on call at a house fixing a boiler when he called the radio, and questions how the residents are going to afford a heat pump or a ground source.

"We've just got to keep progressing, haven't we?" he says. "But the problem we've got is how do we progress and include everybody.”

The prime minister has been speaking to reporters this morning following his speech on net zero.

He said people want the target to be reached in a "fair, proportionate and pragmatic way".

He was also asked why he voted for a 2021 law which would mean households in England would have to have split their rubbish and recycling - potentially into seven different bins.

Welcome to the page if you are just joining us, so far this morning we have heard from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, following his major speech yesterday in which he changed aspects of the UK's green policies.

Here are the main points so far:

• Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the prime minister said he believes "in net zero and I want to deliver it", and said he thought the country was still on course to hit its targets
• His comments came after a leading government climate adviser accused the prime minister of "wishful thinking" on achieving net zero
• Asked if he was "doing what Liz Truss did" by ignoring the advice of the independent Climate Change Committee, Sunak said he was making the change for families who could currently afford alterations
• On the potential for gas boilers to be installed until 2035, Sunak said a typical lifespan for a boiler of 15 years meant they would be ended in the year 2050, when the net zero target is set for
• Sunak was challenged in the interview for saying he had pushed back against extra recycling bins, a tax on meat, or compulsory lift sharing - despite those being proposals, not government policy

• Speaking earlier on BBC Breakfast, the Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch also defended the changes, saying, "what we're not doing is taking away people's choice where they can't afford it"

Image source, PA

A senior Conservative MP has said shifting the government's green targets was "unsettling" for businesses that had invested millions.

The prime minister has pushed back the date for the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales from 2030 to 2035.

Mark Garnier, who also chairs the Commons Net Zero Select Committee, said it was confusing for firms that had been trying to meet the target.

He said: "To change that market with only six-and-a-half years to go is, I think, very unsettling."

Read more on this story here.

We've done a lot of reporting around how the government proposes getting the UK to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, but where do the other parties stand on this key aim to limit climate change?

Labour's Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, has said he would "relish" fighting the next election on net zero, and called the changes "an act of weakness from a desperate, directionless prime minister, dancing to the tune of a small minority of his party".

"The facts are the same", said Liberal Democrats net zero spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse, "whether Rishi Sunak accepts them or not". "The world is watching what we do," she said.

SNP energy spokesman Dave Doogan has said the move will hamper the Scottish government from making the progress it wants to make on climate change because of the Internal Market Act.

Co-leader of the Green Party Carla Denyer said she "felt sick" when she heard the proposals, and said they would "harm our ability as a country to reach net zero", harming "the economy and the well-being of its citizens".

Richard Tice, leader of the Reform UK party, said Rishi Sunak was "admitting the madness of many net zero plans" which were "damaging our economy, sending jobs & money overseas". Tice said the policy should be scrapped altogether.

Is the UK cutting carbon the fastest?published at 11:09 British Summer Time 21 September 2023

11:09 BST 21 September 2023

The prime minister said: “We’ve decarbonised faster than any other economy in the G7.”

On the measure generally used for that he’s right – UK emissions almost halved, external between 1990 and the end of 2022, which is indeed more than the other six advanced economies in the G7.

But that figure only covers what are known as territorial emissions, so it doesn’t include emissions from making products that the UK imports.

A lot of the UK’s cuts in emissions were as a result of the closure of some heavy industry in the 1990s and the move away from coal.

Since the international climate agreement was signed in Paris at the end of 2015, Germany has been reducing its emissions faster than the UK.

The Scottish National Party says it will have to push back its ban on new petrol and diesel car sales after Rishi Sunak said it would not come into force until 2035.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, SNP energy spokesman at Westminster Dave Doogan said the Scottish government will be unable to stick to its target because it is "snared" by the UK Internal Market Act.

The government's plan means there could be a "mismatch between market demand and product availability" if consumers can still buy petrol or diesel cars, he says.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has told BBC Breakfast that changing energy costs are one of the reasons behind the government's new stance on climate change policies.

Across the BBC we've got various programmes and podcasts explaining more about climate change and what net zero really means.

A good place to start if you want to know more about this issue, and how it affects you, is the "What is climate change?" podcast on BBC Sounds.

A lot of focus has been on how changing the route to net zero will affect car owners and boilers - but changes to energy efficiency requirements are set to have a big impact on landlords and renters.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said "the uncertainty surrounding energy efficiency policy" was "hugely damaging to the supply of rented properties".

"Landlords are struggling to make investment decisions without a clear idea of the government's direction of travel."

Tenants' group Generation Rent said "cancelling higher standards for rented homes is a colossal error".

The group's Dan Wilson Craw said renters faced "many more years" of unaffordable bills, adding it was "cruel and out of proportion" with what the prime minister wanted to achieve.

Elizabeth tells BBC Radio 5 Live's Nicky Campbell that Rishi Sunak's net zero goals put too much of a burden on individuals.

She wants the government's focus to be on fossil fuel companies instead and what she sees as their hold on energy pricing in the market.

Sean in Liverpool says it's "deluded" to expect people to transition to electric vehicles quickly.

He says the charging point infrastructure isn't good enough to be able to carry out his work efficiently and welcomes a delay to plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

Theo Leggett
BBC International Business Correspondent

Motor industry sources say they have been informed that government plans to force manufacturers to meet minimum targets for selling electric cars will still come into effect from next year.

That is despite the prime minister’s announcement on Wednesday that the introduction of a ban on the sale of new cars wholly powered by petrol or diesel will be pushed back, from 2030 to 2035.

The Zero Emissions Mandate is due to come into force from 1 January.

Carmakers will be obliged to ensure that at least 22% of the cars they sell have zero tailpipe emissions. That quota will rise steadily – reaching 80% by 2030. Failure to meet those targets could result in heavy fines.

Reacting to the news that the mandate would remain in force, one manufacturer said that meant they would be forced to sell more EVs – but the relaxation of the 2030 deadline would make it harder to do so.

The government is expected to confirm the policy on Friday.

Image source, Reuters

Much has been written and said in the last day about the prime minister's suggestion that the government has ruled out households needing seven rubbish and recycling bins.

A we reported earlier this year the government wants to standardise waste collection in England which would mean recyclables and rubbish would have to be separated (potentially into different bins) although the plan was subsequently delayed.

Theoretically, the bins would have been for glass, paper and cardboard, metal, plastic, garden waste, food waste and general rubbish.

In a statement to the paper at the time, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it wanted to make recycling "easier" and more consistent across councils, but did not say that would necessarily mean more bins.

Speaking last night, former Environment Secretary George Eustice said "it wasn't government policy, no, that's right", when asked on Channel 4 News, external, but added the government was "assailed by representations of this sort".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning where he defended his delay to net zero pledges in the face of robust questioning from Nick Robinson.

You can listen back to the whole interview on BBC Sounds.