Sir Tony Blair has attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s net zero plans. The Labour former prime minister warned that any strategy that limits fossil fuels in the short term was “doomed to fail”.
Sir Tony argued that the current climate approach “isn’t working”, with the debate having “become irrational” and people “turning away from the politics of the issue because they believe the proposed solutions are not founded on good policy”. He wrote in the foreword for a report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI): “In developed countries, voters feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal.”
His comments were seized upon by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the Tories.
Declaring that “we are winning the argument”, Mr Farage said: “Even Tony Blair now says the push for net zero has become ‘irrational’ and ‘hysterical’.”
Acting Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie added: “It seems even Tony Blair has come to the realisation that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party’s mad dash to net zero by 2050 is simply not feasible, or sustainable.
“As Ed Miliband’s net-zero zealotry pushes this country’s energy security even further into the arms of China and their slave labour supply chains, and risks driving up energy bills further and further, only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are telling the truth about energy policy in this country.
“Under new leadership, we have been clear that the cost of net zero by 2050 to families will be far too high, and we must urgently change course.
“Will Labour now finally be prepared to do the same, and put the national interest above their own ideological dogma?”
But Downing Street insisted that the Government’s approach has a minimal impact on people’s lives.
A No 10 spokesman said: “We will reach net zero in a way that treads lightly on people’s lives, not by telling them how to live or behave.
“Clearly there’s going to be a range of views but we are of the view that this is an enormous economic opportunity and as the Prime Minister has made clear, we’re already seeing the benefit.”
In his intervention, Sir Tony wrote that global trends – including the expected rise in fossil fuel use and the doubling of airline travel over the next 20 years – undermine current climate policies.
He said: “These are the inconvenient facts, which mean that any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”
Sir Tony argued there should more focus on emerging technologies such as nuclear fusion, sustainable aviation fuel and carbon capture.
Mr Miliband said he agreed with “a lot” in the TBI think tank’s paper The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action On Climate Change.
Speaking in the Commons, he said: “There’s a lot in it that I do agree with. It says on CCS (carbon capture and storage), we should move ahead, which this Government is.
“On AI and the role of AI, this Government should move ahead, which we are. On nuclear, we should move ahead, which this Government is doing.”