Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero, Edward Miliband, has announced Labour’s plans to make Britain the first major country in the world to “set and achieve the target of zero-carbon power by 2030”.
Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Miliband pledged under a Labour Government to double on-shore wind, treble solar power, quadruple off-shore wind and invest £60 billion into insulating 19 million UK homes over a ten-year period.
“The climate and nature crisis is caused by our burning of fossil fuels,” said Miliband. “The energy bills crisis is caused by the fact we are exposed to the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices wherever we get our gas from. And the crisis of energy security comes from the scramble for gas triggered by global events. So all these crises have the same ultimate cause: our dependence on fossil fuels. And all of them have the same solution.“
“Low-cost, home-grown zero carbon power. The price of solar and wind energy is nine times less than that of gas. This is the defining truth of our age. This is the undeniable truth of our age. It is cheaper to save the planet than destroy it.”
As well as setting out Labour’s climate policies, Miliband criticised the Government’s decision to lift the ban on fracking and ripped into the new Business Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, for coming up with an “energy policy for the 1820s.”
“A man who says we should extract ‘every last drop’ of oil and gas, even though it would mean three degrees of global warming,” he continued. “A man who says ‘trying to forecast the climate is unrealistic’, the cost is probably unaffordable. Let’s call it what it is: this is dangerous climate denial.”
In response to criticism about lifting the ban on fracking, Ress-Mogg told the House of Commons in a debate that it was in the national interest by making the country richer – ousting those, including Miliband, as “luddites” for speaking out against the method.
Prime minister Liz Truss also declared her support for fracking as a way to offset the rising energy prices in the UK by boosting its domestic gas supply. In reference to the 2019 Conservative manifesto, Truss said it would only be considered “if the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.”
However, a report from the Guardian last week detailed a leaked report from the British Geological Survey (BGS), showing little evidence that there has been enough progress since the fracking ban to meet that manifesto promise. The report cited “significant existing knowledge gaps” that make forecasting earthquakes caused by fracking “a scientific challenge.”
The Conservative government has now launched a review into its plan to reach net zero by 2050. The inquiry will be led by Tory MP Chris Skidmore, with the government saying it’s still committed to reaching the goal previously set.
