Ed Miliband: Why ditching the climate change act would be bad for Britain

The Conservative leader’s reckless plan to abandon our clean energy targets and maximise North Sea fossil fuel production has united the country and her party against her, argues Labour’s net zero secretary, Ed Miliband

You have to hand it to Kemi Badenoch. She has united an extraordinary coalition today. Unfortunately, against – rather than for – her position.

In the face of her desperate pledge to scrap the Climate Change Act, a policy that would be an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations, businesses, unions, faith leaders, and even her own Conservative colleagues are lining up to condemn it.

This policy is anti-jobs, anti-worker, anti-young people, and anti our country’s future. It represents not just a wrong turn, but a lurch away from a framework that has delivered for working people for nearly two decades. The Climate Change Act, passed by a Labour government with Conservative support in 2008, has been the foundation for tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy. It was businesses that campaigned for this framework in the first place, recognising that clear rules and certainty could power innovation and investment.

The clean energy economy is now booming in this country; last year, it grew three times faster than the rest of the economy, supporting nearly a million high-paying jobs. Whether it is nuclear apprentices at Sizewell C, or engineers delivering carbon capture in the North East, there are workers across the country who are in good jobs with good pay, thanks in part to the legacy of the Climate Change Act. That is why Rain Newton-Smith, Director General of the CBI, put it plainly: the Climate Change Act has been the “bedrock” of investment in the UK’s clean energy economy.

As one top Tory said, Badenoch is attempting a “Reform tribute act” who have boasted that they would “wage war” on the clean energy economy. As I said at Labour conference this week, we should be clear that their policies would mean war on the workers at the Siemens wind turbine factory in Hull, war on the construction workers building carbon capture and storage in Teesside, a war on the working people of Britain, and all-out war on future generations, too.

I do not believe that the British people want a war waged on the clean energy that can bring not just jobs, but also bring down bills by getting us off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets.

This is not just about economics. It is about our identity and our values as a country. I was struck by the words of the Bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher, who spoke of the Climate Change Act as reflecting “the best of who we are: a nation that cares for creation, protects the vulnerable and builds hope for future generations”. That is the Britain I believe in.

It is also a Britain that I think most decent people believe in, too. Far be it from me to intervene in Tory politics, but I suspect that Theresa May, the former Conservative prime minister, speaks for far more Conservative voters than Badenoch when she today called this plan “a catastrophic mistake”. It is a cherished conservative value to want to steward our environment and pass on the inheritance of our beautiful home to our children and grandchildren – it is only a shame that Badenoch wants to rip it all up.

In trying to tear up the broad public support for climate action, Kemi Badenoch has instead reminded us of how deep it goes. Workers, businesses, faith leaders and people across the political divide all agree; Britain’s future lies in clean, secure, homegrown energy. And Labour will see it through.

Ed Miliband is secretary of state for energy and net zero