Writing off net zero? Kemi Badenoch mustn’t fall into Reform’s trap
Kemi Badenoch is right to question the path to net zero, but pandering to Reform by writing it off would be a mistake for the party, writes CEN director Sam Hall
In her first speech of 2025, Kemi Badenoch apologised for enshrining net zero without a plan to achieve it.
She’s right that setting climate targets without policies to meet them is simply virtue signalling. She’s also right to point out the official government net zero strategy wasn’t published until 2021 – over two years after the target was set.
But successive Conservative governments did eventually develop a net zero plan that was reducing emissions and attracting private investment. And it would be a mistake for the new leadership to disown all of this and the Conservative record on climate change it delivered.
In fact, the party should take a lot of pride in its achievements, from phasing out coal power, to building the largest offshore wind sector in Europe, to rewarding farmers for adopting more sustainable farming practices.
Other important policies were in train too, such as restarting the new nuclear programme, simplifying the planning process for clean technologies and infrastructure and creating carbon capture clusters.
A market-led plan could win Kemi votes
This is not to say the plan was perfect, though, and Kemi Badenoch should take time to examine it as part of her policy review. The party didn’t always pursue the most market-friendly policies to reduce emissions. The Whitehall-imposed ban on onshore wind, for example, took decisions about clean power infrastructure away from local communities. Similarly, regulations were too often favoured over incentives, while red tape held back businesses from innovating and investing in clean technologies. And sometimes targets were signed up to without ministers across government supporting the action needed to achieve them.
But whatever faults the last government’s plan had, Labour’s takes us in the wrong direction entirely.
As ministers are already proving, excessive state intervention and unfeasible government targets will increase bills, drive away private investment, and alienate voters. The 2030 clean power target will damage competition, lock in higher energy prices, and stifle space for community engagement on infrastructure. Ed Miliband’s new quango, GB Energy, is set to invest billions in offshore wind, despite the wall of private money already willing to invest in this industry.
With an honest, market-led plan on net zero, however, Badenoch could win back voters, provide a cheaper alternative, and ensure the UK reaps the economic benefits.
Conservatives still support net zero
She must be careful not to fall into Reform’s trap and write off net zero. The Conservatives do need a credible plan for climate change. The vast majority of voters care about protecting our environment for their children and grandchildren and support climate action. Voters who switched from Conservatives to Reform at the last election were motivated overwhelmingly by the party’s failure to control immigration. Opposition to climate action was the driving factor for only a tiny minority of defectors.
The honest truth is there is no cost-free option when it comes to climate change. Rising global temperatures are a major threat to security and prosperity. Rural communities are already being devastated by extremes of weather, such as flooding. Farmers’ margins are being squeezed and consumers’ grocery bills increased by climate change. Investment today in clean technologies prevents much greater state intervention in managing climate impacts tomorrow.
Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, claimed recently that net zero is the main reason for the cost of living crisis. This is simply not true. Ditching climate action would condemn taxpayers to ever more state spending and higher taxes to pay for bigger flood defences and repairing homes and infrastructure after extreme weather events. It is vital Conservatives call out false, simplistic solutions to complex problems. Reform’s fantasy land of putting our head in the sand and pretending climate change doesn’t exist is not serious.
A debate about how we protect future generations from climate change and reach net zero, however, is vital and welcome. Labour’s statist route to net zero will burden business and risk a backlash from voters. If the Conservatives are bold in rethinking the net zero policy pathway and honest about the imperative of tackling climate change, they will be rewarded by voters.
Sam Hall is the director of the Conservative Environment Network