The Conservatives have pledged to scrap the UK’s landmark Climate Change Act and replace it with what they call a strategy for “cheap and reliable” energy.
The 2008 legislation, introduced by Labour and strengthened under Theresa May, committed the UK to legally binding emissions cuts, later updated to a net zero target by 2050.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch 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.”
The party said the Act had forced ministers “to make decisions to meet arbitrary climate targets, even if they make the British people poorer, destroy jobs, and make our economy weaker.” Badenoch has previously described the net zero by 2050 target as “impossible” and promised to “maximise” North Sea oil and gas production.
Labour’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who introduced the Act in 2008, condemned the plan.
He said: “This desperate policy from Kemi Badenoch if ever implemented would be an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations. The Conservatives would now scrap a framework that businesses campaigned for in the first place and has ensured tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy since it was passed by a Labour government with Conservative support 17 years ago.”