Kemi Badenoch distanced the Tories from Net Zero today as she vowed to ditch the 2050 green target she said would bankrupt the country.
The Conservative leader used a speech to reject plans introduced by then PM Theresa May in 2019 and backed by other Tory leaders including Boris Johnson.
Dubbing herself a ‘Net Zero sceptic’ she argued that drastically cutting carbon emissions cannot be achieved without serious financial problems hitting living standards at a time when families are struggling.
She also claimed it would make the UK dependent on authoritarian regimes for its energy supply.
She sought to put clear blue water between her party and Labour, blasting Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for spending ‘all of his time serving up dollops of lofty rhetoric’.
The Tories are also struggling to win back voters from Reform, which has made Net Zero scepticism a key plank of its platform.
However she failed to set out any immediate Tory counter-proposals, instead setting up a taskforce to find ‘achievable solutions’ to delivering cheap and clean energy.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch speaking at the Centre for Policy Studies conference at Guildhall in London
Mrs Badenoch is poised to ditch a legal commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050, saying hitting the target is ‘impossible’
Some MPs backed her move, with Alec Shelbrooke said she was right to ditch ‘artificial deadlines that will make everyone a lot poorer’.
‘Kemi’s engineering and logic based expertise is allowing a sensible policy path to be outlined, that doesn’t just chase populist headlines, or a dogmatic approach that will bankrupt us all,’ he told MailOnline.
But she also also risks angering swathes of environmentally conscious Tories, who would like the party to take a lead on green issues.
Critics also pointed out that as International Trade Secretary in 2022 she told a conference: ‘Green jobs are the jobs of the future … we need to act now and act fast.’
Speaking in North London this morning Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Net zero by 2050 is impossible.
‘I don’t say that with pleasure. I want a better future and a better environment for our children, but we have to get real.’
She added: ‘Without the rest of the world doing the same we are making our country less safe, less secure and less resilient.’
The Tory leader hit out at Reform UK, which she said ‘don’t have real answers to our country’s challenges, that’s why their energy policy fell apart right after they announced it.’
She also criticised Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey, saying he was energy secretary when Nick Clegg was ‘dismissing the idea of building new nuclear because it would not come online until 2022’.
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, whose membership includes almost half of Mrs Badenoch’s MPs and 500 councillors, said she had ‘jumped the gun’.
‘It is a mistake to have preempted the policy review by deciding that Net Zero by 2050 isn’t achievable,’ he said.
‘The target is based not on wishful thinking, but the scientific imperative of stopping the worsening impacts of climate change and preventing unaffordable costs.
‘Ditching the target will undermine private enterprise and capital driving the energy transition and alienate voters worried about their children and grandchildren’s inheritance.’
In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to pass legislation requiring it to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero by 2050. It means any emissions must be balanced by schemes to offset an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere – from planting trees or using carbon capture.
Mrs Badenoch will insist the Tories ‘care deeply about our natural environment’ and ‘badly want to improve it’, but the current policies are failing to do this while also driving up the cost of energy
As well as drawing a dividing line with Labour, the policy marks a break from previous Tory leaders including Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron.
Lord Cameron once urged people to ‘vote blue, go green’, while Mr Johnson criticised Rishi Sunak over his plans to U-turn on some Net Zero commitments. Earlier this month, Mr Sunak told the BBC that the Net Zero commitment – put into law by Baroness May – should be ditched.
Mrs Badenoch also launched the Conservative Party ‘policy renewal process’ today – a bid to build a strategic policy programme for government.
She said the party cannot ‘shortcut our way back into office with easy answers or rushed announcements’, but must ‘develop credible plans that reflect the shared conservative values of personal responsibility, citizenship, sound money, family, freedom and so much more’.
It is understood that ditching the legal commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050 is on the table in the policy discussions, though it is unclear if she would replace the target date.
Other ideas to be examined include pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights and other international treaties, as well as the idea of a single tax rate on all incomes, something Mrs Badenoch said last year was ‘very attractive’.
Last night activists interrupted a speech by Mrs Badenoch to the Centre for Policy Studies.
Two women from a campaign group called Climate Resistance shouted out during an event at central London’s Guildhall centred around commemorating the legacy of Baroness Thatcher, a founder of the think tank.
As Mrs Badenoch began to speak, a woman held up a banner that said ‘Abolish Billionaires’ and began to shout.
She was ejected from the hall by members of the audience before another protester began to call out about the cost-of-living crisis.
Mrs Badenoch could be heard to say that Baroness Thatcher could ‘hardly’ be blamed for the rising cost of living.
