Kemi Badenoch will deliver a speech on net zero on Tuesday (Image: Getty)
Kemi Badenoch will insist that reaching net zero by 2050 is “impossible” without a drop in living standards or by bankrupting the UK.
The Tory leader will take aim at Ed Miliband at a speech on Tuesday where she will say she has instructed her shadow cabinet to begin the process of coming up with policies for their department.
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Mrs Badenoch is expected to say: “Net Zero by 2050 is impossible. I don’t say that with pleasure. Or because I have some ideological desire to dismantle it – in fact, we must do what we can to improve our natural world.
“I say it because to anyone who has done any serious analysis knows it can’t be achieved without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us. And responsible leaders don’t indulge in fictions which are going to make families poorer, or mortgage their children’s future.”
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Former Tory Prime Minister Theresa May passed a law that committed the UK to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
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She said the UK had a chance to lead "the green revolution", an aim supported by Boris Johnson.
Net zero means that the total greenhouse gas emissions would be equal to the emissions removed from the atmosphere, with the aim of limiting global warming and resultant climate change.
But Mrs Badenoch, a long-time net zero sceptic, will say: “This is not making a moral judgement on net zero. I’m certainly not debating whether climate change exists. It does.
“I badly want to leave a much better environmental inheritance for my children and for yours.
“But it doesn’t look like the West is going to get remotely close to Net Zero by 2050.
“And neither will any autocracy – not that they are really trying to anyway.
“This is what happens when politics turns into fantasy.”
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The Tory is expected to take aim at Labour’s promise to bring household bills down by ￡300.
In her speech, she will continue: "The truth is that Net Zero by 2050 is impossible. And we need to be honest with the public who think that Labour have a plausible plan. They do not. We have to do better than this. And that’s why, today as part of our policy renewal, we are going to do something that Labour failed to do when in Opposition – and explains why they are floundering so badly now. We are going to deal with the reality. Answer the real questions. Confront the real problems. And we start today on energy and net zero."
Her comments will raise expectations that the Tories could water down or even ditch net zero targets at the next election manifesto - if she remains the party’s leader.
Mrs Badenoch will also announce that she has asked her shadow cabinet to begin looking into priority areas ahead of policy announcements.
Her shadow secretaries of state will “set a series of core priority questions” and could include externally commissioned reports.
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Alasdair Johnstone, of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: "Given that we need to reach net zero emissions to stop greenhouse gases increasing and so the ever worsening floods and heatwaves driven by climate change, any sense of giving up on the goal 25 years before the finish line, particularly when the UK has made good progress, seems premature.
"It is certainly technologically and economically feasible for the UK to hit net zero emissions and the clear majority of the British public back the net zero emissions target seeing renewables and clean technology as the top growth sector. The UK’s net zero economy grew by 10% in 2024 [2], and momentum towards renewables and electrification globally is only going in one direction, so any signal of a slowdown is a recipe for investor uncertainty and economic jeopardy.
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"It was a Conservative government that provided global leadership in setting a net zero emissions target since which more than three-quarters of global GDP is now covered by a net zero commitment."
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, adde: “It is a mistake for Kemi Badenoch to have jumped the gun on her own policy review and decided net zero isn’t possible by 2050. This undermines the significant environmental legacy of successive Conservative governments who provided the outline of a credible plan for tackling climate change. The important question now is how to build out this plan in a way that supports growth, strengthens security, and follows conservative, free market principles.
“Kemi is right that Labour’s approach is not credible; it risks undermining net zero with higher prices. It is also vital the party reviews the legal framework and policy mix for climate action to ensure they are truly market-oriented. However, the net zero target is driven not by optimism but by scientific reality; without it climate change impacts and costs will continue to worsen. Abandon the science and voters will start to doubt the Conservative Party’s seriousness on the clean energy transition, damaging both growth and the fight against climate change.”