Conservative response to Labour’s climate change announcement

Responding, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, said:

“Tackling climate change is one of the most important challenges we face. 

“But unions, climate experts and businesses all agree that Labour’s plans are unachievable, would saddle families with huge costs as well as higher energy bills.

“Only the Conservatives are taking the responsible decisions and practical steps needed to achieve our world-leading net zero target.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Even Labour-supporting unions called Labour’s 2030 target ‘utterly unachievable’. Tim Roache of GMB said: ‘The proposal to do it by 2030 threatens whole communities, threatens whole jobs … Net zero carbon emissions by 2030 is utterly unachievable. We can't go to the country with a plan that is frankly not credible. Is not deliverable’ (BBC, The Today Programme, 24 September 2019, archived).

• Unions have highlighted the dangers of Labour’s undeliverable 2030 plan. GMB said: ‘This will mean that within a decade people’s petrol cars being confiscated. This will mean families can only take one flight every five years. Net zero carbon emissions by 2030 is utterly unachievable’ (BBC, The Today Programme, 24 September 2019, archived).

• The independent Committee on Climate Change said achieving Net Zero before 2050 is not ‘credible’ and advises against it. The CCC said: ‘Setting a legal target to reach net-zero GHG emissions significantly before 2050 does not currently appear credible and the Committee advises against it at this time’ (Committee on Climate Change, Net Zero: The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming, May 2019, link).

• The Committee on Climate Change warn that targeting Net Zero before 2050 would require ‘punitive’ measures, making life considerably harder for the British people. The CCC said: ‘An earlier date would also give less time to develop currently speculative options as alternatives to make up for any shortfall from other measures. That could lead to a need for punitive policies and early capital scrappage to stay on track to the target’ (Committee on Climate Change, Net Zero: The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming, May 2019, link).

• The IFS described Labour’s 2030 target as ‘almost certainly impossible’. Paul Johnson said: ‘We need zero emissions. Getting there by 2050 is tough and expensive but feasible and consistent with avoiding most damaging climate change. Aiming for zero emissions by 2030 is almost certainly impossible, hugely disruptive and risks undermining consensus’ (Paul Johnson, Twitter, 24 September 2019, link).

• One of Britain’s leading climate change economists said a 2030 target is ‘extremely difficult’ and would require huge disruption to people’s lives. Lord Stern, who authored the Report on the Economics of Climate Change for the Treasury in 2006, said: ‘I think to go net zero, say, in the UK, by 2025, would be extremely difficult. You'd have to get all the internal combustion engine cars off the road, you would have to get all the gas boilers changed, all within five years. That's a pretty hard ask. The Government's target of net zero by 2050 makes sense’ (BBC, Politics Live, 8 October 2019, archived). 

Labour’s plans are already hurting our efforts to tackle climate change… 

• The CBI said that Labour’s plans to renationalise the energy network is already threatening our efforts to tackle climate change. It said: ‘Much-needed investment is drying up under Labour's threats, which seriously risks hampering efforts to tackle climate change, and puts in doubt the innovation that will deliver a net-zero carbon economy’ (Press Association, 16 May 2019, archived).

• Labour’s nationalisation plans would disrupt our efforts to tackle climate change and promote clean growth. The Energy Networks Association found that a nationalised system would be poorly placed to invest in new technology needed to decarbonise, as it would have to compete with other government spending priorities (Current News, 26 September 2018, link; Hansard, 23 February 2018, link).

We are leading the world in tackling climate change:

• Becoming the first major economy to end our contribution to global warming by 2050.We will go Net Zero by 2050, ending the UK’s contribution to climate change by expanding electric vehicle use, supporting new clean technologies like fusion and making all new homes energy efficient (Prime Minister’s Office, Press Release, 12 June 2019, link; BEIS, Press Release, 3 October 2019, link; MHCLG, Press Release, 1 October 2019, link).

• Offshore wind capacity has increased by more than 500 per cent under the Conservatives. In 2010, the UK has 1,341MW of installed offshore wind capacity, by 2018, this had risen to 8,217MW – an increase of 513 per cent (BEIS, Digest of UK Energy Statistics: renewable sources of energy, 25 July 2019,link).

• Reducing greenhouse gases by a quarter under the Conservatives. We have reduced greenhouse gases by 25 per cent since 2010, whilst decarbonising faster than any other G20 nation since 2000 (BEIS,2018 UK greenhouse gas emissions: provisional figures, 28 March 2019, link; PwC, Low Carbon Economy Index 2019, accessed 7 October 2019, link).

• Generating record levels of clean energy by supporting renewable technologies. Renewables now generate 35.5 per cent of the UK’s electricity, up from 6.1 per cent under Labour. Offshore wind generation has increased by over 500 per cent under the Conservatives, and 99 per cent of all solar power deployment has taken place under the Conservatives (BEIS, Renewable electricity capacity and generation, 26 September 2019, link; Hansard, 21 May 2019, link).

• Creating millions of low carbon jobs, growing our economy while reducing emissions. Our investment has meant there are almost 400,000 people working in low carbon businesses and their supply chains across the country already, and we will create two million low carbon jobs by 2030 (BEIS, Authored article, 20 February 2018, link; BEIS, News Story, 27 June 2019, link).