Kemi Badenoch vow to axe Climate Change Act ‘catastrophic mistake’ – Theresa May

Conservative former prime minister Theresa May has criticised Kemi Badenoch’s plan to scrap world-leading climate legislation as a “catastrophic mistake”.

Tory leader Ms Badenoch 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% by 2050, with five-yearly carbon budgets to keep the country on track towards the goal.

Baroness May of Maidenhead, as she is now known as a peer, increased the ambition of the Act while in office to cutting greenhouse gases to zero overall, known as “net zero”, by 2050.

Lady May said: “I am deeply disappointed by this retrograde step which upends 17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community.

“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.”

Lady May joined other leading Tory figures in attacking Ms Badenoch’s pledge, with Conservative peer Lord Alok Sharma urging his party not to “squander” its legacy of climate progress “for the sake of short-term political expediency”.

Lord Sharma, who is a former Cop26 president and served as business secretary and now chairs the UK’s Transition Finance Council, said: “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.

“Voters, especially younger people and those in key marginal seats which we need to retain or win back, expect serious, coherent and forward-looking policies from the Conservative Party.

“Our legacy is one of global leadership. We should not squander this for the sake of short-term political expediency.”

However, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho defended the Conservatives’ plan, insisting that the Government needs to “put cheap electricity first”.

Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, 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.

Explaining her policy, Mrs Badenoch has said: “We want to leave a cleaner environment for our children, but not by bankrupting the country.

“Climate change is real but Labour’s laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions.

“Previous Conservative governments tried to make Labour’s climate laws work – they don’t.

“Under my leadership we will scrap those failed targets.

“Our priority now is growth, cheaper energy and protecting the natural landscapes we all love.”

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 interested only in “following Farage”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has also vowed to scrap net zero targets if the party wins the next election, claiming it will save £30 billion 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.

Scientists warn the world must cut rapidly emissions to zero to prevent global temperatures rising to more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which worsening sea level rises, severe storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and the collapse of natural systems such as coral reefs will occur.

But political division has grown over the measures needed to tackle climate change, even as the costs of clean energy have plummeted and the impacts of rising temperatures such as heatwaves and wildfires have become more severe.

The Conservatives claimed the Act has forced ministers to bring in regulations that pushed up energy bills, hit growth and supported wood-burning power stations such as Drax, and shifted British industry abroad.

While UK emissions have halved since 1990, global climate pollution has increased and countries such as China have not followed Britain’s lead, the party said.