The Conservatives have pledged to scrap the UK’s landmark climate change legislation and replace it with a strategy for “cheap and reliable” energy.
The Climate Change Act 2008, which put targets for cutting emissions into law, was introduced by the last Labour government and strengthened under Tory PM Theresa May.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party wanted to leave “a cleaner environment for our children” but argued “Labour’s laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions”.
Environmental groups said the move would be an act of “national self-harm”, while Labour said it would be “an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations”.
Conservative ex-prime minister Baroness Theresa May criticised the decision as a “retrograde step which upends 17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community”.
“To row back now would be a catastrophic mistake for while that consensus is being tested, the science remains the same,” Baroness May added.
The 2008 law, which was passed when current Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was in the same role in Gordon Brown’s government, committed the UK to cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
In 2019, under May’s premiership, this legally binding target was updated to reaching net zero by 2050 – meaning the UK must cut carbon emissions until it removes as much as it produces.
The legislation also established the Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on meeting the target and reports on progress towards reducing emissions.
At the time, the law passed through Parliament with the support of all major parties.
However, the political consensus on net zero has since fragmented.
Badenoch has previously said the target of net zero by 2050 is “impossible” for the UK to meet and promised to “maximise” extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea.
Reform UK has also said it would scrap net zero targets if it wins the next election, blaming the policy for higher energy bills and deindustrialisation in the UK.
The UK was the first country to establish a long-term legally binding framework to cut carbon emissions, and since the act was passed many other countries have introduced similar legislation.
However, the Tories said the act forced ministers “to make decisions to meet arbitrary climate targets, even if they make the British people poorer, destroy jobs, and make our economy weaker”.
The party argues that the 2008 law has “forced successive governments to introduce punitive measures that have hit family finances”.
As an example, it pointed to fines for boiler manufacturers who do not hit heat pump sales targets, which critics have branded a “boiler tax”.
The scheme, announced but then delayed by the previous Conservative government, came into force under Labour in April.
The UK has high electricity costs, ranking the fourth highest for domestic consumers of medium usage when compared to other EU countries, and the highest for industrial usage.
Labour says its plan to boost clean energy in Britain will reduce household energy bills by “up to £300” by 2030. However, earlier this year energy bills rose by 6% for a typical family.
Badenoch said: “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. 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.”
However, 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 has ensured tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy since it was passed by a Labour government with Conservative support 17 years ago.”
Former Conservative minister Lord Alok Sharma, who was president of the Cop 26 UN climate summit in 2021, said the last Conservative government had a legacy of “global leadership” on tackling climate change and urged Badenoch not to “squander this for the sake of short-term political expediency”.
The Liberal Democrats also criticised the announcement.
The party’s energy security and net zero spokesperson Pippa Heylings said: “The reality is that investing in renewables is the greatest economic growth opportunity in this century and will protect the planet for future generations.”
Meanwhile, Richard Benwell, chief executive of the Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition of environmental groups, said: “The real route to lasting security is in homegrown clean power, not burning more fossil fuels.
“Without binding climate law, ministers will be free to trade away our future – and it is nature and the poorest communities that will pay the price.”
