Climate Political Earthquake: UK Conservative party to ditch commitment to net zero in UK by 2050! – ‘We’ve got to stop pretending’ – To regain ‘trust’ is ‘to tell the unvarnished truth – net zero by 2050 is impossible’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/17/conservative-party-to-ditch-commitment-to-net-zero-in-uk-by-2050
By Kiran Stacey Political correspondent
Break in cross-party consensus on issue to be announced on Tuesday
The Tory leader will give a speech on Tuesday in which she will argue that hitting Britain’s legally binding climate target is “impossible”, abandoning one of the most significant policies enacted by her recent predecessor Theresa May.
The net zero commitment was emblematic of the cross-party consensus on tackling climate change, which Badenoch has promised to unpick as part of her determination to move on from the Conservatives’ general election defeat last year.
“We’ve got to stop pretending to the next generation,” she will say. “We’ve got to stop government by press release.
“It’s exactly the reason that the political class has lost trust. The only way that we can regain it is to tell the unvarnished truth – net zero by 2050 is impossible.”
She will add: “The current policies the UK is implementing are largely failing to do this, whilst, at the same time, driving up the cost of energy. We’re falling between two stools – too high costs and too little progress.”
News of the announcement triggered anger among environmentalists in her own party, however.
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, said: “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, which 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.”
Badenoch’s speech marks the beginning of what she says will be a multi-year policy review, with each member of the shadow cabinet asked to review their party’s policy platform from scratch.
The Conservative leader has insisted she does not want to set out a full political programme until much later in the parliament, once the review is concluded. However, early policies she has announced have indicated she wants to push her party to the right on a range of issues, including immigration, the climate and tax.