 "Zac Goldsmith")
A British environment minister who is close to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit on Friday, accusing the current government of apathy toward climate issues.
Zac Goldsmith said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was simply uninterested in the environment.
This government's apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable, he wrote in a resignation letter released on social media.
He said Britain has visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature.
Goldsmith, Sunak and Johnson are all members of the governing Conservative Party.
Goldsmith, 48, is a long-time conservationist who was appointed to Parliament's unelected House of Lords by Johnson before Johnson resigned almost a year ago amid ethics scandals.
Goldsmith's resignation comes the day after he was among eight allies of the former prime minister criticised by lawmakers for trying to undermine a committee investigating whether Johnson lied to Parliament over rule-breaking government parties during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The Privileges Committee found that Johnson did mislead lawmakers, and recommended a 90-day suspension from Parliament, though he avoided that ignominy by resigning as a lawmaker after the committee gave him advance notice of its findings.
The panel also said that Goldsmith and the other Johnson allies put improper pressure on committee members and mounted vociferous attacks on the committee on social media, radio and television.
Goldsmith's criticism follows a report this week by the British government's climate advisers that said Britain was being tardy in meeting its net zero greenhouse gas emissions and has lost its clear global leadership position on climate action.
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