Kemi Badenoch: Tories to look at ‘achievable solutions’ for clean energy
Kemi Badenoch has said net zero is “impossible” for Britain to achieve by 2050 and that her party will look at “achievable solutions”.
The Conservative Party leader outlined her plans for the Tories to renew their policy programme at a speech in London, as she set out her stall ahead of the May local elections.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho and shadow Scotland secretary Andrew Bowie will be looking at “achievable solutions” to delivering cheap and clean energy, Badenoch said.
The Tory leader said her team was tasked with “finding and working with the people who know the truth and who can come up with achievable solutions, people who can answer from experience, how we can deliver cheap and clean energy without bankrupting businesses, without eye-watering bills for households, without dependencies on hostile or unstable countries.”
She added: “Labour may or may not be interested in these questions, but we are. Someone has to save these noble objectives from the zealots who have hijacked this agenda.”
Badenoch said she would lead an overhaul of the Conservative’s policy offer, and pledged to offer “credible plans” that are “rooted in realism, not wishful thinking”.
‘Thinking about tomorrow’
The Tory leader said she wanted to “show that we are thinking about tomorrow” after the public “made it very clear the Conservatives needed some time away from government”.
Speaking to activists and media in central London, she said: “Our job right now is to use that time wisely, just as Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron did in generations past.
“Just like the 1970s and 2000s, our party cannot shortcut our way back into office with easy answers or rushed announcements.”
Ahead of her speech, Badenoch had committed to dropping the Conservatives target to achieve net zero by 2050.
Kemi Badenoch said it was time to “get real” about net zero, insisting it is “impossible” to reach the target by 2050.
She said: “I don’t say that with pleasure. I want a better future and a better environment for our children, but we have to get real.”
She added: “Without the rest of the world doing the same we are making our country less safe, less secure and less resilient.”
Net zero responses
The Tory leader hit out at Reform UK, which she said “don’t have real answers to our country’s challenges, that’s why their energy policy fell apart right after they announced it.”
She also criticised Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey, saying he was energy secretary when Nick Clegg was “dismissing the idea of building new nuclear because it would not come online until 2022”.
In response Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), argued that “the Conservatives’ policy review is a crucial opportunity to build a credible, election-winning platform on climate change”.
He stressed this “must be rooted in core conservative principles around environmental stewardship, security, individual choice, and free markets” and “cannot be statist and expensive like Labour’s approach, but must be more honest about the threat of climate change than Reform”.
While Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper commented: “Scrapping net zero and renewable energy targets will simply increase our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, lining the pockets of the likes of Vladimir Putin and his cronies.”
“Whether it’s abandoning plans for clean energy, slashing maternity pay or undermining the UK’s national energy security, Badenoch’s plans would leave our country worse off.”