A report in The Guardian has suggested that the Labour Party could be set to shelve its net zero policy pledge of spending £28 billion a year on green investment.
In an article released by the publication on Thursday (1 February), sources have said that the political party is set to cut its green ambitions by “around two-thirds” and come following increasing concerns that the figure would be in part justification for a likely tax rise should the party gain power in the upcoming general election.
Despite this scaled-back vision, the article did state that Labour would maintain elements of its core mission, including investing in green infrastructure in addition to the creation of GB Energy, a publicly owned clean energy company which Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the party, has previously likened to “Ørsted in Denmark and Vattenfall in Sweden”.
According to The Guardian’s sources, the £28 billion figure was always likely to be “firmly allocated before the general election, so this isn’t such a major departure really. It’s being firmed up, not dropped”.
Supporting green, renewable investment has been a key aspect of Labour’s governmental campaigns and has featured heavily across its policies in the last year. In October 2023, the party unveiled plans to “double onshore wind, treble solar and quadruple offshore wind in the UK”.
This was according to Ed Miliband, shadow secretary of state of climate change and net zero, who announced the plans as part of his speech at the Labour Party conference.
Labour’s green policies appear to be in direct contrast to the stagnation seen under the Conservatives with frequent attacks on areas of policy, such as the de facto onshore wind ban introduced by David Cameron’s government in 2015.
Despite confirming that Rishi Sunak’s government would “ease” planning rules for onshore wind developments in England, many in the industry have criticised a lack of compromise leading to not-for-project organisation Good Law Project to recently announce its intention to take legal action against the government.
As net zero appears to be one of the key elements of the upcoming general election, it is unknown what impact the scaled-back vision for Labour could have in the polls.
Commenting on the speculation, Alasdair Johnstone, head of parliamentary engagement at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said: “Polling of public and business leaders has shown that both are eager to see greater investment, saying they support both the Conservative government’s action to support JLR’s Gigafactory in Somerset and Labour’s plans to invest in ramping up clean energy.
“Without ramping up investment in energy efficiency, renewables and EVs the UK’s energy independence will inevitably decline. The jeopardy is very clear.”
