"Despite the Opposition leader’s decision to abandon the 2050 net zero target, there are still plenty of green fanatics in her party"
Telegraph: 19th March 2025: Allison Pearson congratulates Kemi Badenoch on her move to out herself as a net zero sceptic but explains why more is needed...
"Two cheers for Kemi Badenoch. And another half a cheer at least for having the guts to stand up to the green zealots in her own party. It can’t be easy.
Yesterday’s speech... in which she announced the scrapping of the net zero target for 2050 was stirring stuff, but it didn’t go quite far enough. She failed to echo the strident and entirely justifiable exasperation of a member of her shadow energy team who recently exploded, “We have to get rid of this net zero c--p or we’re doomed!”. Now, that’s the truth...
Kemi is being diplomatic by still – sort of – claiming that we could be carbon neutral in 25 years time if only there was “a plan”. Nope, not a chance... such a transition... would cost between three and four trillion pounds... We couldn’t possibly afford it, and even if we could, it would be a futile gesture given that the UK’s contribution to global levels of CO2 (0.9 per cent) amounts to a rounding error...
...The cost of failing to exploit our own bountiful reserves of oil, gas and coal is such an act of national self-harm... The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the industrialised world ... British industrial prices are 146 per cent higher than Germany... 274 per cent higher than the United States ... 503 per cent higher than China...
... The Conservatives will need to go further if they want to have a chance of bringing back the voters they lost, I think. But, yesterday, Badenoch did something pretty remarkable by coming out as a “net zero sceptic”..."