Boris Johnson may have told world leaders ‘it’s easy being green’ – but events at home tell a different story

The prime minister is finding out that Kermit the Frog was right after all, writes John Rentoul

Boris Johnson, left, and Kermit the Frog (AFP/Getty)

Boris Johnson’s trip to the US has been a parable of the green religion. He went to lecture the world about the need to produce less carbon dioxide while his ministers back home were scrabbling to subsidise a fertiliser company to produce more. Normally, people don’t make the connection between carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere as a by-product of burning fossil fuels and carbon dioxide produced on purpose – or, actually, as a by-product of making fertiliser – to make drinks fizzy. Well, we know now.

The second part of the parable is more telling. The prime minister gave a speech at the UN taking “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green” by Kermit the Frog as his text, trying to persuade world leaders of the opposite, that it is easy to adopt policies to curb the burning of fossil fuels. One of those policies might be to put up the price of fossil fuels compared with green energy. Meanwhile, his ministers back home are rushing between pillar, post and broadcasting studio to reassure people that the price of natural gas will be kept down so that we can burn lots of it to “keep the lights on” this winter.

Just as Johnson told world leaders Kermit was wrong, and that being green is easy – “it’s not only easy, it is lucrative and it is right to be green” – it turned out that it was Kermit who was right. The rise in the price of natural gas is nothing to do with green policies, but it underlines a stark environmental message. The price rise is the result of the global economy bouncing back from Covid-19 lockdowns faster than expected, although Paul Scully, today’s minister for broadcast studios, sounded a bit cautious about the prime minister’s blithe assurances in New York that the price rise was “temporary” and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s description of it as a “spike”. Scully is now insulating himself against hostages to fortune by talking about a “worst-case scenario” in which prices fail to return to pre-pandemic levels.