Reform manifesto offers up the chance to vote against Net Zero

A major UK political party is now planning to scrap Net Zero. Reform announced their manifesto for the general election today (17 June), pledging to scrap the emissions target completely and arguing this would save taxpayers £30 billion a year between now and 2050.  

Firstly, credit where it’s due. This is a significant moment in British politics. As Richard Tice said in his speech, the political establishment gave little attention to how Net Zero could be achieved before they introduced the target, and have consistently underplayed just how big an impact it would have on ordinary working people. Reform are now offering people a chance to reject that consensus. 

£30 billion a year is in the right ballpark too, and indeed it could be much more. The Climate Change Committee have said the cost of meeting Net Zero would be around £50 billion a year by 2050, and the Treasury go even higher to £70 billion by the same date. A caveat is that these costs are balanced against savings that may or not materialise – it very much depends on how you price the risk of climate change itself. What assumptions Reform are making is very difficult to surmise as very little detail has been given.

I hope this announcement will lead to Net Zero being given more attention during the general election campaign. It needs it. This could be about the most consequential policy area for the decades ahead but we are yet to see a serious plan for energy policy.

Reform will need to give much more detail if they are to convince the public that they have one. The energy market is now so distorted that further interventions are undoubtedly required for it to get back on a stable footing and to ensure security of supply. These may be expensive in the short term, and voters shouldn’t be offered up a panacea.

What about climate change? Will decarbonisation be completely abandoned as an objective? Their past statements on the impact of CO2 and the history of climate change will surely be highly scrutinised. Green activists have repeatedly reduced the climate debate to a binary test where you have to be for or against tackling climate change – a disturbingly successful tactic. Reform have to be wary of falling into that trap.

Harry Wilkinson is head of policy at Net Zero Watch