A cabinet minister has called Sir Tony Blair’s intervention in the net zero debate “valid and important” after the former PM criticised the government’s approach on going green.
Sir Tony, who served as prime minister from 1997-2010, declared on Tuesday that the current approach to hitting the target of net zero by 2050 was “doomed to fail”, and called for politicians to face “inconvenient facts”.
Responding to the intervention, the environment secretary insisted Blair had made a “valid and important contribution” to the debate.
Speaking to Times Radio, Steve Reed said he agreed with much of what the former PM had said but “not absolutely every word”.
He commented: “[Tony Blair is] making a valid and important contribution to a very significant debate that we’re having. I agree with much of what he said, but not absolutely every word and dot and comma of it.
“But this government is moving to clean energy because it’s best for Britain. It’s more energy security for Britain. It’s jobs and investment right across the United Kingdom. And those are all things we all want to see.”
Reed also played down the extent to which Blair’s intervention amounted to criticism of government policy.
He added: “One of the other points that Tony is making in his piece is that there needs to be more focus on carbon capture and storage technology. Well, we agree with that. The government is investing £22bn in that technology. That’s the highest amount any government has ever invested.
“So I think we are doing what Tony Blair says he wants to see, but we’re also shifting away from dependence, over-dependence on fossil fuels because it’s better for the country to take control of our own energy.”
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Ed Miliband, the energy security and net zero secretary, issued similar comments in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Asked about Blair’s comments, he said: “I agree with a lot of what [the report from Blair’s thinktank] says. It says that we should move ahead on carbon capture and storage, which the government are doing.
“It says that we should move ahead on the role of artificial intelligence, which the government are doing. It says that we should move ahead on nuclear, which the government are doing.
The former prime minister’s intervention was delivered in a foreword to a report by the Tony Blair Institute. In it, he argued that the expected global rise in fossil fuel use and the doubling of airline travel over the next 20 years undermines current climate policies.
He wrote: “These are the inconvenient facts, which mean that any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”
Ahead of the local elections on Thursday, the Conservative Party has warmly welcomed Blair’s comments.
Shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie responded: “It seems even Tony Blair has come to the realisation that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party’s mad dash to net zero by 2050 is simply not feasible, or sustainable.
“As Ed Miliband’s net zero zealotry pushes this country’s energy security even further into the arms of China, and their slave labour supply chains, and risks driving up energy bills further and further, only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are telling the truth about energy policy in this country.
“Under new leadership, we have been clear that the cost of net zero by 2050 to families will be far too high, and we must urgently change course. Will Labour now finally be prepared to do the same, and put the national interest above their own ideological dogma?”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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