Kemi Badenoch has vowed to cut energy costs and revive British industry if she becomes Prime Minister by scrapping Ed Miliband’s Net Zero drive.
In a major policy move, she said a Conservative government would replace Labour’s Climate Change Act with a strategy putting cheap and reliable power first.
The Tory leader attacked the legislation – passed by current Energy Secretary Mr Miliband in 2008 when he was a minister under Gordon Brown – for introducing legally binding targets and burdensome regulations, leading to higher bills.
It is blamed for increasing the cost of gas boilers by forcing families to buy heat pumps and for making ministers support the controversial Drax power station, which claims to produce eco-friendly electricity by burning wood pellets.
Mrs Badenoch also pledged to abolish the Climate Change Committee, a quango which urges Britons to eat less meat and take fewer flights to cut carbon emissions.
It comes on top of her previous pledges to scrap the 2050 Net Zero target and encourage companies to extract all available oil and gas from the North Sea.
She said on Wednesday night: ‘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.
In a major policy move, Kemi Badenoch said a Conservative government would replace Labour’s Climate Change Act with a strategy putting cheap and reliable power first
It comes on top of her previous pledges to scrap the 2050 Net Zero target and encourage companies to extract all available oil and gas from the North Sea. Pictured: A oil rig in the North Sea
‘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 Tory leader said the Climate Change Act makes ministers ‘do lots of stupid things’ to hit Net Zero, regardless of their impact on emissions or cost.
She claimed the UK is ‘the only country in the world’ that is compliant with the Paris Climate Agreement, adding: ‘If other countries aren’t doing it, then us being the goody two-shoes of the world is not actually encouraging anyone.’
And she suggested because farmers are being burdened with red tape, we ‘import more meat from elsewhere and dirtier products while closing down our industry’.
Mrs Badenoch also told The Spectator that US President Donald Trump shares her concern about Labour’s pledge to restrict North Sea drilling.
Sam Richards, of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said: ‘Current targets are locking everyone into higher bills for longer, so it’s understandable the Conservatives want to reform them.’
Mr Miliband 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 which has ensured tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy since it was passed by a Labour Government with Conservative support.’