Badenoch pledges repeal of Climate Change Act and net-zero target

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act and abandon the United Kingdom's legally binding net zero by 2050 target if her party wins the next election, saying she would instead prioritise cheaper, more reliable energy and economic growth. The pledge, announced ahead of the Conservative party conference, would remove statutory carbon budgets and replace the current legal framework with a government strategy aimed at lowering bills for households and businesses while promising to protect natural landscapes.

The Climate Change Act, passed in 2008 and amended in 2019 to enshrine the net zero target, requires five yearly carbon budgets to keep the country on track. Badenoch and her allies argue the law has imposed rigid constraints that have driven up energy costs, contributed to deindustrialisation in sectors such as chemicals, cement and metals, and exposed companies and taxpayers to legal challenges and compensation costs. "We want to leave a cleaner environment for our children, but not by bankrupting the country," Badenoch said, adding that the net zero agenda has involved "a lot of deception." Her team says the party would substitute the...