Labour’s mission is ‘to make Britain a clean energy superpower, to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.’
This is what Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero, said at the Energy UK conference.
He said: ‘The central aim of the government is to drive towards zero carbon power system by 2030 and as part of a broader acceleration across our economy to net zero.
‘And we’ve made the decarbonisation of the power system the priority because a clean electricity system is, in our view, the linchpin of the drive to net zero, given the increase in electricity demand we’re likely to see.
‘This is the foundation for the whole movement towards net zero and also the lesson of the cost of living crisis that we’ve been through in the last two years.
‘I really want to emphasise to you that it is our dependency on fossil fuels that makes us more insecure and exposed to higher bills for families and businesses.
‘So the aim of 2030 clean power and accelerating to net zero is, of course, driven by the climate crisis, as you would expect but it is also based on an analysis of how we lower bills and get our country greater energy independence, clean, cheap homegrown power.’
The minister criticised the Conservative Party’s decision of pushing the climate change agenda further into the future.
He said: ‘We just don’t buy the argument that there is a choice to be made between tackling the cost of living crisis on the one hand and tackling the climate crisis on the other.
‘We can do both. Indeed, we must do both. I would suggest by tackling the climate crisis in the right way, we can help address the cost of living crisis. And that’s explicit in our mission.
‘It is a false, short term, self-defeating solution to suggest that somehow dither and delay in building a clean energy future will be good for our economy.
‘The drive to net zero is not simply an obligation to be managed, as some people would see it but an opportunity to be seized.
‘This government has been wasting precious time in not making the green sprint happen with the urgency required.’
He stressed on the importance of independence from global markets that are prone to shocks.
He said: ‘The fundamental point in our mission is that whatever the reforms of the retail market, they cannot be expected to stop the tide of global events when we are so exposed as a country.
‘So for us, the only long term solution is to make the power we get cheaper and less vulnerable to shocks and manipulations by petrostates and dictators.’
He added: ‘Accelerating to net zero can help us deliver a more socially just, economically prosperous country. Both, decarbonisation of our power systems and the economy, can make us genuine world leaders again, in relation to the climate crisis.’
Watch the video for his full session.
