"Labour chairman of energy committee, Bill Esterson, says people will ‘absolutely’ be required to make adjustments as part of the transition to clean energy"
Telegraph: 24th November 2024: Telegraph reports on Energy Committee chairman contradicting the Prime Minister on what it will take to meet net zero targets
"...Bill Esterson, the most senior backbencher charged with scrutinising the Government’s energy policy, said ordinary people will “absolutely” have to adjust their habits to meet the UK’s ambitious emissions goals for 2030.
His remarks directly contradict Sir Keir Starmer’s claim earlier in November that the Government can hit its climate targets without telling people “how to behave”... At the Cop29 climate summit in Baku on Nov 12, Sir Keir outlined a new target to cut emissions by 81 per cent by 2035. But he told the conference he would not tell Britons “how to behave” or tell people “how to live their lives”...
Emma Pinchbeck, the head of the climate change committee, has also warned that the green power grid would be insufficient to meet the Government’s 2035 emissions target, resulting in a need for people to switch gas boilers for heat pumps and use electric cars...
The mounting claims that everyday adjustments will be needed in the transition to clean energy threatens to undermine the Prime Minister’s assertion that Labour can wean Britain off fossil fuels without requiring ordinary people to make sacrifices..."