Theresa May has condemned Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to scrap landmark climate legislation if the Tories win the next election, warning it would be a “catastrophic mistake”.
The former prime minister dubbed the plans a “retrograde” step that ended 17 years of consensus on the issue of climate change between mainstream political parties and the scientific community.
Her comments came after the Tories announced plans to repeal the Climate Change Act, which was brought in by the last Labour government in 2008 and committed the UK to cut climate emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, with five-yearly carbon budgets to keep the country on track towards the goal.
Under May’s premiership, the Conservatives increased the ambition of the act to cut greenhouse gases to zero overall, known as “net zero”, by 2050.
Responding to the announcement, Baroness May said: “For nearly two decades, the United Kingdom has led the way in tackling climate change, initially with the Climate Change Act in 2008 and again in 2019 when we became the first G7 country to legislate to get to Net Zero by 2050.
“To row back now would be a catastrophic mistake for while that consensus is being tested, the science remains the same. The harms are undeniable.
“We owe it to our children and grandchildren to ensure we protect the planet for their futures and that means giving business the reassurance it needs to find the solutions for the very grave challenges we face.
“Ultimately, it is innovation and investment that will take us forward, but that can only be achieved by providing consistency and showing a clear determination to stick to the long-term path of reducing emissions, achieving Net Zero and protecting our planet for future generations.”
It came after former Tory minister Alok Sharma warned the plans would risk future investment and jobs in the UK.
Lord Sharma, who is a former Cop26 president and served as business, energy and industrial strategy secretary under Boris Johnson, urged his party not to “squander” its legacy of climate progress “for the sake of short-term political expediency”.
“Thanks to the strong and consistent commitment of the previous Conservative government to climate action and net zero, the UK attracted many tens of billions of pounds of private sector investment and accompanying jobs.
“This is a story of British innovation, economic growth, skilled jobs and global leadership – not just a matter of environmental stewardship. Turning our back on this progress now risks future investment and jobs into our country, as well as our international standing.
“The path to a prosperous, secure and electable future for the Conservative Party lies in building on our achievements, not abandoning them.”
He added: “Our legacy is one of global leadership. We should not squander this for the sake of short-term political expediency.”
Speaking to The Spectator, Ms Badenoch denied that she is sceptical of the climate crisis, adding: “That’s very obviously happening. But there’s been a lot of deception around the net zero agenda and I really want to expose that.
“Net zero has become nothing more than a slogan … We need to do what we can sensibly to tackle climate change but we cannot do it alone.
“If other countries aren’t doing it, then us being the goody-two-shoes of the world is not actually encouraging anyone to improve.”
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho also defended the plan, insisting that the government needs to “put cheap electricity first”.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Coutinho argued that the Climate Change Act forces politicians to make decisions that make Britons poorer.
She said: “One of the biggest problems that the country faces is that our electricity prices are too high.
“So, what we’ve said is we have to look at why that’s happening. Some of that is because of the Climate Change Act, which creates this very rigid budget and makes ministers choose these decisions, which are going to make them poorer.
“So we need to repeal that and we need to rethink our energy strategy, to put cheap electricity first.”
Acknowledging that it was the Conservatives who brought in the net zero by 2050 target, Ms Coutinho said her party needs to “look at things where we think we were in the wrong position”.
She said the high cost of electricity is “causing huge harm to families and businesses” and also claimed it is “incredibly harmful for the decarbonisation agenda”, because it puts people off adopting electric vehicles and home heating.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband called the move “desperate” and said it would be an “economic disaster”, while the Liberal Democrats said it showed the Tories were only interested in “following [Nigel] Farage”.
The Reform UK leader has also vowed to scrap net zero targets if the party wins the next election, claiming it will save £30bn a year.
When the Climate Change Act was introduced, it was a world-first for climate legislation, although many countries have since followed suit and nations agreed the world’s first comprehensive treaty to curb global warming in Paris a decade ago.
