In the Telegraph this week, former Theresa May aide now MP Nick Timothy writes that Ed Miliband’s “policies bring serious dangers to Britain”. Rightly so. But, adds Timothy, “he aims to reach Net Zero by 2050”, “decarbonise the grid by 2030”, and “reduce carbon emissions by 81%, based on 1990 levels, by 2035”. While this questioning of Net Zero is of course welcome, this belated Parliamentary scrutiny has some serious shortcomings.
“There is more joy in Heav’n,” and all that. And so I do not wish to appear to be making the perfect the enemy of the good by taking us on an ideological purity spiral. But Net Zero by 2050 is a cross-party policy priority, not Ed Miliband’s own personal policy agenda. The Climate Change Act (CCA) was made law in 2008 with just five MPs dissenting on the final vote. The CCA’s 80% emissions reduction target was raised to Net Zero by Statutory Instrument in 2019, after just 90 minutes of deliberation in the House of Commons, with no Noes being recorded – and hence no vote. Moreover, the CCA created the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which gives advice to Parliament, which the Secretary of State with the climate brief is obliged to consider. It is the CCA’s advice that the target should be 81% by 2035.
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