Labour’s net zero plans ‘risk blackouts and public unrest’

Labour’s net zero plans risk leading to blackouts and public unrest, the Energy Secretary has claimed.

Claire Coutinho told The Telegraph Labour’s pledge to convert Britain to clean power by 2030 – five years earlier than the Conservatives – would put the country’s energy security in jeopardy.

She said her major concern about Sir Keir Starmer’s “unrealistic” target was that the UK did not yet have the renewable energy infrastructure in place “to make sure we can keep the lights on”.

The Telegraph can reveal that the Tory manifesto will include a pledge to reform the remit of the official climate watchdog so it is forced to take account of the cost to households and the effect on energy security when advising ministers on carbon targets.

The climate change committee – which has been pushing the Government to impose more radical net zero targets – makes recommendations to ministers on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Labour’s plans to decarbonise the electricity grid five years earlier than the Conservatives’ 2035 target forms part of its proposals to meet the overall 2050 net zero target.

Ms Coutinho said the plans were “simply ideological”, adding: “They’re pretending that they can decarbonise the grid by 2030 – a target which no other major economy has. And if they were to achieve it, it would either be through enormous costs, or it would risk blackouts in this country.”

The Energy Secretary said she believed renewable energy sources do not consistently produce enough power for Britain, and that if Labour insisted on keeping its 2030 pledge it would either have to pay huge sums to import renewable energy – making Britain reliant on foreign producers such as China – or limit power use.

She said the problem with pushing ahead too quickly with converting Britain to clean power was that “sometimes the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine”.

Ms Coutinho added: “At the moment we have gas, which is of flexible capacity. Going forward, we will have things like batteries and other technologies, but they’re not ready yet. So my concern is that we don’t have the right things in place to make sure that we can keep the lights on in Britain.”

The Energy Secretary said imposing “over-ambitious” climate policies would increase household bills and lead to “wide public unrest”.

It came as the Tories attempted to recover from the row over Rishi Sunak’s decision to skip an international event to commemorate D-Day.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister visited Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland and a village fete in Great Ayton, in his Richmond constituency, but avoided taking questions from reporters.

Ms Coutinho’s comments will be seen as a bid by the Tories to put the row behind them and counter criticism from Nigel Farage in Friday’s TV debate that the Government was pursuing “completely unrealistic climate policies”.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said his party was ready to “grasp the centre-Right of British politics” and lead the opposition to Sir Keir.

Exclusive polling by Savanta for The Telegraph shows that Labour has its biggest lead since the end of March, with the Tories falling by two points to 26 per cent.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government scrapped its target to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 after experts warned that it was unachievable.

Ms Coutinho said the transition to clean energy, if done in the right way, could be an “opportunity” for Britain by creating new technologies and attracting investment, but added: “If you do that in an ideological way, then what you end up with is just an enormous cost for households and wide public unrest.

“We’ve seen that happen in continental Europe, and we’ve seen what’s happened up in Scotland, where they’ve taken some decisions recently to push back targets that they simply couldn’t reach.”

The Government’s official strategy includes an “ambition” for low carbon electricity to account for 95 per cent of Britain’s supply by 2030. Even this target will require a dramatic overhaul of the energy system and a major increase in the amount of cables and pylons needed to transport the electricity.

Labour has also pledged to halt the issuing of new licences for North Sea exploration and drilling, along with increasing taxes on offshore profits from 75 per cent to 78 per cent.

It comes after Transpower, the National Grid operator, last month warned families to limit their electricity usage in order to avoid a shutdown during a cold snap.

New Zealand is to revoke a ban on drilling for oil and gas amid fears of blackouts, with the country’s coalition government inviting energy companies to resume exploration in the three major offshore fields that supply most of its gas.