After a speech in which the Conservative leader vowed to reverse the ‘impossible ideology of net zero by 2050’, she has now been accused of lacking any real policy
Kemi Badenoch has been ridiculed for “delusional” plans to strip net zero requirements from North Sea oil and gas.
Speaking in Aberdeen on Tuesday, the Tory leader pledged to scrap the need to reduce emissions or work on green technologies, instead promising to “maximise extraction”. Ms Badenoch had previously U-turned on her own climate commitments, claiming earlier this year that hitting net-zero emissions by 2050 was “impossible” and would leave the UK “bankrupting ourselves”.
After a speech in which the Conservative leader vowed to reverse the “impossible ideology of net zero by 2050”, she has now been accused of lacking any real policy. Energy minister Michael Shanks attacked her calls to scrap vital climate targets, and accused the Tories of failing to secure the nation’s energy.
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Also giving a speech at the SPE Offshore Europe conference, he said: “We will work with every single one of you to achieve our goal; a prosperous North Sea that powers the UK’s energy future. What drives us is our refusal to accept the status quo of the last decade, let down by a previous Government which talked big but allowed thousands of jobs to be lost and other countries to steal a march on winning the jobs of the future.
“It’s easy to put a few lines in a party-political press notice and call it a policy, but the hard work of stewarding the long-term future of the North Sea is far too complicated for that.
“North Sea workers and communities deserve a Government that says it is time to invest in the future, and manage the transition in a rational, cooperative way. That is what this Government is doing.” A Labour spokesperson said: “The Tory party has learnt nothing from their worst defeat in 200 years at the general election.
“The Conservatives and Reform UK want to repeat the same failed energy delusions that led to the worst cost of living crisis in generations, they seek to deny the reality of the energy transition and they would deny Britain the jobs of the future including for workers in the North Sea
“It is this Labour government that will ensure a prosperous transition in the North Sea through a clean energy sprint for the future. That’s what it means to do right by today’s and future generations.”
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