Rishi Sunak shouldn’t pretend he’s doing Brits a favor

Those “seven different bins” never existed. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, seven different bins of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - A climate [delay]( will cripple the UK. - The German [economy]( is in disarray. - [Decoupling]( from China is not the play. - Britain’s [housing market]( is in decay. Procrastination Nations Please, someone tell me which is worse: This [exchange]( between Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Representative Doug LaMalfa about the meaning of climate change: Or UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to “[scrap](” a series of climate policies that literally never took effect. Here’s a [tweet]( poking fun of the way he announced it, to give you a better idea of just how disingenuous it was: It’s a tough call, but I think the latter takes the cake, right? Sure, not knowing [the difference]( between climate change and seasons changing is cringe cringe cringe, but “protecting” Brits from having to separate their rubbish into “[seven different bins](” — a nonexistent policy! — is pretty god awful. Lara Williams [says]( Sunak is in hot water after announcing “[his total gear shift](” on UK climate policy Wednesday. Not only is he throwing fictitious taxes on meat and air travel in the trash, he’s “pushing the ban of new gas and diesel cars back to 2035 from 2030; delaying the phaseout of gas boiler installations to 2035; moving the off-grid oil boiler ban to 2035 from 2026 and discarding new home energy-efficiency regulation,” she writes. Normally, I would be sympathetic to those suffering from procrastination. Last night, I lost countless hours of my life clicking on every square pixel on the internet about [Taylor Swift]( and [Sophie Turner](’s “friendship.” But I’m writing a newsletter, not running a country! Sunak should know better. “Delaying action just means harder, steeper cuts in the future. And though [Sunak] spoke of not forcing heavy costs on Britons, it’s hard to overstate the overall damage and costs of walking back targets,” Lara argues. His precipitous announcement came just as global leaders were gathered for the UN General Assembly in New York, where US President Joe Biden [called]( climate change an “existential threat” to “all of humanity.” The week prior, Biden [said]( the prospect of long-term global warming was scarier “than a nuclear war.” At first, that kind of frank language sounds like a step up from Sunak’s sustainable subterfuge. But as Mark Gongloff [warns]( (free read!): “If such rhetoric isn’t credible, then there’s a risk it will have the opposite of its intended effect.” Consider Representative LaMalfa. The California Republican clearly enjoys making misinformed dad jokes. But many Americans are listening to his quips, and some are taking him for [his word](. Leaders like LaMalfa can easily weaponize Biden’s doom-mongering, inspiring “climate-change deniers to flood social media with dangerous nonsense,” Mark writes. The last thing the world needs is more tweets like [this](: What’s worse, Mark argues, is that Biden’s presidency has been marked by promising commitments (rejoining the Paris Agreement, approving the Inflation Reduction Act, [canceling]( Alaskan drilling rights) and not-so-promising ones (approving the [Willow oil project](, opening federal lands to exploration, speeding construction of the [Mountain Valley]( gas pipeline). Sending such mixed signals is a dangerous game, not just for politics, but for the planet. “Climate change truly is an emergency. Action will go much further than hyperbole,” Mark concludes. Bonus Climate Reading: Wait, since when was [running the dryer]( better than line-drying? Households will have to make some counter-intuitive climate choices as solar power continues to change the grid. — David Fickling If Germany Had a Therapist My favorite Pixar character of all time is Edna Mode, the half-Japanese, half-German fashion designer in The Incredibles. In the movie, you might recall her giving an [impassioned speech]( to Helen, the teary-eyed wife of Mr. Incredible, also known as Elastigirl: Helen: [sobbing] Now I’m losing him! What’ll I do? What’ll I do? Edna: What are you talking about? Helen: [stops crying] Huh? Edna: [shouts] You are Elastigirl! My God... [swatting Helen with a newspaper] Edna: Pull! Yourself! Together! “What will you do?” Is this a question?? You will SHOW him you remember that he is Mr. Incredible, and you will REMIND him who *you* are. Well, you know where he is. Go, confront the problem. Fight! Win! Edna went on to supply Helen with a virtually indestructible [supersuit]( that breathes like Egyptian cotton. From [the looks]( of things, it really seems as though Germany could use a pep talk from Edna right about now: “For decades, Germany achieved great economic success with a strategy uncommon among developed nations: It became one of the world’s leading suppliers of manufactured goods, such as cars and machine tools, relying on a combination of cheap imported energy and extreme frugality to keep prices competitive,” Bloomberg’s editorial board [writes](. Now, Europe’s largest economy is in dire need of a new supersuit, so to speak. Here’s how I imagine Edna would handle the situation: Germany: [coughing] [Gas prices]( are gonna be through the roof until at least 2027. My industrial sector is [down]( 18% from December 2021. China went from being my [friend]( to my [enemy](. And it feels like I’m [dragging]( down the entire continent! They call me the [sick man of Europe](! What’ll I do? What’ll I do? Edna: What are you talking about? Germany: [stops coughing] Huh? Edna: [shouts] You are the [heart of Europe](! With one of the lowest debt burdens in the world!! My God... [swatting Germany with a newspaper] Edna: Pull! Yourself! Together! “What will you do?” Is this a question?? You will SHOW Europe how incredible you can be together, and you will REMIND them that *you* are an economic miracle. You’ve [met]( such [challenges]( before, and you can do so again. Fix the [debt brake](! Invest in railways and broadband! Encourage immigration and expand public [child care](! You know what you have to do. Go, confront the problem. Fight! Win! Telltale Charts Biden’s master plan to conjure up a renaissance in manufacturing jobs is a bit too ambitious for real life. We’ve moved far beyond the days of eating [lunch atop a skyscraper](, and that’s OK. The nation is bleeding factory jobs, and although employment projections are improving, it’s not nearly at a rate that would reorganize the world economy away from China. “Playing chicken with globalized capitalism carries real risks for the US, not to mention the rest of the world,” Eduardo Porter [writes](. Whether we like it or not, attempts to truly de-tangle our headphone cords from China’s will largely fail. The sooner the US wakes up to that reality, the better: The UK government’s goal of building 300,000 homes a year is looking like a complete joke, Matthew Brooker and Marcus Ashworth [write](. According to [research]( by Centre for Cities, Britain’s housing headache has been years in the making. The UK built less than any other western European nations in the six decades through 2015. “It would take more than half a century to make up a deficit of 4.3 million homes at the government’s targeted rate of construction,” they write. The planning system needs a complete and total revamp if it wants any chance at breaking the logjam. Further Reading TikTok’s [piracy problem]( might be good for Hollywood. — Bobby Ghosh There’s a link between [patience]( and academic achievement. — Tyler Cowen A desire for [Sikh nationhood]( makes India very worried. — Karishma Vaswani [UK shoppers]( are defying gravity. — Andrea Felsted The fight between [workers and employers]( is just getting started. — Betsey A. Stevenson With a single footnote, the Supreme Court got itself into a new [legal pickle](. — Noah Feldman England’s [surprise decision]( to pause its rate-hiking cycle was a very close call. — Marcus Ashworth ICYMI McCarthy got [ambushed]( by his own party. A 96-year-old judge got [suspended](. Rupert Murdoch’s [son]( is the [Eldest Boy](. Mississippi sees a spike in [infant syphilis](. Kickers Vegas has the world’s largest [spherical structure](. Trump is worried about [prison jumpsuits](. A toddler used her dog as [a pillow]( in the woods. A tourist called the cops after getting a [$1,000 bill]( for crab. One of Jupiter’s moons has [carbon in its ocean](. Notes: Please send Alaskan King Crab and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](