IT’S time to tell the truth about the ambition to get to Net Zero by 2050. It’s impossible.
I don’t enjoy writing that. Like all Sun readers, I want to leave a better world with a better environment for my children.
GettyIt’s time to tell the truth about the ambition to get to Net Zero by 2050. It’s impossible[/caption]
: Chris McAndrew / UK ParliamentKemi Badenoch believes it’s time to be honest with British people over net zero by 2050[/caption]
GettyKeir Starmer and Ed Miliband prefer word games to confronting the reality of the situation[/caption]
But we have to get real.
Anyone who has done any serious analysis knows Net Zero 2050 cannot be achieved without bankrupting us or the country.
Everything we do in our daily lives depends on energy.
When energy became cheap and abundant, people’s quality of life began to rise, their health improved and life expectancy increased.
Cheap, abundant energy is the foundation of civilisation as we know it today. We mess with it at our peril.
But that’s exactly what we’ve been doing for more than 20 years — ever since the last Labour government passed the Climate Change Act.
It’s fantasy politics, not backed with a plan. Promising the earth, but costing it too.
In Britain, we have the highest energy bills in the developed world.
You feel it in your monthly outgoings; and every business in the country — from pubs and restaurants to data centres and heavy industry such as steel and ship building — is suffering.
No idea
High energy costs make it harder for the UK to compete, and it weakens us.
If we do not have a strong and growing economy sustained by affordable energy, how can we possibly hope to stand up to the likes of Russia and China?
As with so much in our country, Labour are making everything worse.
They’re closing down oil fields in Scotland that we need for our domestic energy supply, and pouring billions of your taxes into subsidising wind and solar energy.
Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband prefer word games to confronting the reality of the situation.
The Government talks endlessly about “missions” and “goals”, but never about how much it is costing us all.
As with so much in our country, Labour are making everything worse
Labour are spending £18billion setting up another quango called GB Energy, which won’t even produce any energy! They have no idea what it will actually do.
Before the election, Keir Starmer promised to cut your energy bills by £300 a year. Since he became Prime Minister, bills have gone up by about £300.
And while the cost of heating your home rises, Labour took away the Winter Fuel Allowance from some of the poorest pensioners who needed it most.
The real reason no one in Labour is talking about a proper overall plan for Net Zero 2050 is that they know how catastrophic the actual costs will be for families, for businesses and for our economy.
Families being forced to replace perfectly good cars with expensive electric versions, boilers replaced with pricey, bulky heat pumps, the Government gradually making air travel prohibitively expensive.
I don’t deny that climate change is happening. It clearly is. And it is a core Conservative Party value that we must protect nature.
But even if we did get to Net Zero, the UK only accounts for one per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, so it would make little difference.
Meanwhile, as we pay ever more for energy and drive our key industries overseas, the rest of the world is not following us down this costly path.
Countries like India and China are looking after their economies and prioritising energy security for their people.
There must be a better way to look after our environment without collapsing our living standards.
So, I have asked the Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho to look at all aspects of the UK’s future energy and Net Zero policies, supported by Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Andrew Bowie, and Lord Offord, businessman and former minister.
Ready to rebuild
I am tasking Claire and her team to find and work with the people who know the truth and who can help build workable solutions.
Experienced businesspeople and experts can advise how we deliver cheap and clean energy and put an end to high bills for households.
Labour may not be interested in these questions, but we are.
There must be a better way to look after our environment without collapsing our living standards
In the coming weeks, the Conservative Party will be doing the same with many of the other problems we see in our country: Getting people back to work.
Protecting our heritage and traditions. Fixing the NHS. Repairing the mess Labour are making in education. Controlling immigration.
Yesterday I told people about how I want the Conservative Party to get ready to rebuild and make our country stronger again.
We have done this before, such as when Margaret Thatcher rescued Britain from decades of decline under Labour.
Lady Thatcher did it by fighting for ordinary people and families. I’m going to do the same.
We will be renewing Conservative policies with common sense.
Telling the truth about Net Zero 2050 is just the start.
GettyLabour are closing down oil fields in Scotland that we need for our domestic energy supply, and pouring billions of your taxes into subsidising wind and solar energy[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
