UK emissions will rise under Tory plan, Coutinho says

The Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has admitted carbon emissions would rise in the UK under her party’s plan to scrap net zero policies.

In a BBC interview, Coutinho defended her party’s pledge to axe the law that legally requires the UK government to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050.

Coutinho argued net zero had become a “religion” that had increased electricity costs and made climate change “worse” by exporting emissions abroad.

She said a Conservative government would be focused on lowering energy bills and expanding the UK’s oil and gas sector in the North Sea.

Coutinho spoke to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast after announcing her party’s plan to reduce energy bills at its conference earlier this month.

The Conservatives said they would repeal the Climate Change Act 2008, ditch carbon taxes on electricity generation and cut a funding scheme for renewables.

When asked if she accepted emissions would go up under this plan, Coutinho said: “So emissions would go up domestically but I would argue not necessarily globally.

“And this is the problem that we’ve got. The Climate Change Act is specifically focused on domestic emissions.”

The UK’s legally binding targets are set on the basis of emissions within the country’s territorial borders.

That means emissions associated with imports to the UK, such as gas, steel or cement from abroad, are not taken into account.

Coutinho said: “So if you don’t have AI in Britain, that’s great for the Climate Change Act. But it doesn’t make a bit of difference to global emissions.”

The shadow energy secretary said the question of whether her party’s plan “would be a better or worse decarbonisation path I think is actually up for grabs”.

The Conservatives have not stated how they intend to lower emissions globally or how they would measure greenhouse gases released beyond the UK’s borders.

This week, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 had seen a record rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

In its latest progress report, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said “emissions in the UK have been steadily decreasing, with levels in 2024 50.4% below those in 1990”.

The CCC, which is the UK’s government climate adviser, said data from 2022 showed imported emissions were at their highest level since 2007.

But the committee added: “The reduction in territorial emissions since 1990 significantly outweighs the increase in emissions from imports over that period, reflecting the fact that emissions reductions in the UK have largely occurred without offshoring emissions.”

The net zero target was passed into law by the government of Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019.

Since then, the political consensus on net zero has broken down, with the Conservatives and Reform UK blaming green policies for higher energy prices.

In contrast, the Labour government is aiming for clean power to meet 95% of electricity demand by 2030, and Miliband has pledged to lower average bills by £300 by that date.

The BBC understands Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering action to bring down energy bills, for example, by reducing levies.

Coutinho was the energy secretary in the previous Conservative government and during her tenure in 2023, she said “nothing will distract us from achieving net zero or driving forward renewables”.

But Coutinho told Political Thinking she had been on a “journey” since then.

“I thought this was a good thing and we needed to be careful about how we were doing it,” Coutinho said.

“But the more I got under the bonnet, the more I realised, actually, what we’re doing is counterproductive.”

A Labour spokesperson said accused the Conservatives of leaving “families and businesses exposed to the worst cost-of-living crisis in memory”.

“Instead of learning their lessons, they now want to double down on their failure and strap Britain even further onto the fossil fuel rollercoaster,” the spokesperson said.

“The only way you take back control of our energy is with this government’s clean energy mission, with record investment in renewables and nuclear power.”

Coutinho, who is also shadow minister for equalities, was also asked her views on immigration, integration and comments made by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.

In a speech in March, which was secretly recorded and subsequently published by the Guaridan newspaper, Jenrick said the Handsworth area of Birmingham was “one of the worst-integrated places” he had ever been to.

He said he had spent an hour-and-a-half there and not seen “another white face” during his visit, adding: “It’s not about the colour of your skin or your faith, of course it isn’t. But I want people to be living alongside each other, not parallel lives.”

When asked if she would have made those comments, Coutinho said: “Yes, I would.

“I think this again is where people get things wrong. We can be very clear about what it means to be a member of our nation state.”

She added “that shouldn’t make us unafraid to use language and speak plainly about things which are worrying”.

You can listen to the full episode of Political Thinking on BBC Sounds. It will be on BBC2 on Friday at 1230 and on Radio 4 on Saturday at 1730.