Sunak and ministers stoking division over UK’s net zero target, warns Ed Miliband

Ministers are stoking the fires of the culture wars over the UK’s net zero target instead of addressing the urgency of the climate crisis, Ed Miliband will say.

The shadow energy secretary will make a pitch directly to Conservative voters who are concerned that the party has made major U-turns on cutting greenhouse gas emissions amid increasingly anti-green rhetoric.

“If the tree on their logo was real, no doubt they would cut it down and challenge Labour to support them,” he will say of the Tories in a landmark speech at a Green Alliance thinktank event in London on Tuesday morning.

It is the first time Miliband has made a public speech on the climate crisis since the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, decided to cut back on the party’s pledge to spend £28bn a year on cutting emissions and building a green economy, a move that was widely criticised by green campaigners.

Miliband is expected to say that Labour will create the conditions for private sector investment in renewable energy, grid upgrades and clean technology. He will accuse the Tories of failing to grasp these opportunities because of an obsession with appeasing rightwing voices who have fixated on net zero as a culture war issue.

“Families across the country are united in their desire for lower bills, cleaner water, and a green and pleasant home that we can leave for our children,” Miliband will say. “Instead of embracing this mainstream majority, Rishi Sunak is willing to give up the fight for lower bills and energy security because he wants to stoke the fires of a culture war.”

Sunak announced the roll back of several key pledges on the climate last September, including postponing the phase-out of sales of new petrol and diesel cars, and stepped up plans to license new oil and gas fields in the North Sea. His rhetoric has been seen by campaigners, as well as former Conservative ministers and serving “green Tory” MPs as increasingly anti-green.

Last week, the government delayed by a year its plans for a clean heat market mechanism to encourage the take-up of heat pumps.

Labour is still planning an end to new licences for oil and gas in the North Sea, and to decarbonise the UK’s electricity supply by 2030. But the party faces key questions over its approach and will have to confront the “culture war” that even Conservative former ministers have said the government is pursuing.

For instance, ministers have issued new edicts over what they term anti-driving measures taken by local authorities and devolved administrations, such as 20mph zones and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

Starmer appeared rattled on transport issues last year in the wake of Labour’s failure to take Uxbridge in the byelection created by Boris Johnson’s resignation, where plans by Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for an ultra-low emission zone were a major issue on the doorstep.

Miliband believes many Tory voters are deeply concerned that the government has abandoned or rowed back on climate measures. He will say “there is nothing Conservative” about the approach taken by Sunak and refer to “a deeply honourable Conservative tradition that cares about climate and nature”.

A key plank of his argument is that failing to invest in renewables, home insulation and energy efficiency is leading to higher bills.

“Five more years of failing to invest in homegrown clean energy and failing to tackle the climate crisis under the Tories would mean rocketing energy bills, our national energy security undermined, and our children further exposed to the dangers of rising temperatures, floods, and droughts. There is nothing conservative about that,” he will say.

Miliband will say: “If you want a government that will protect our home for future generations against the existential threats we face, if you want a government that will make Britain energy independent once again, and if you want a government that will fight every day to cut your energy bills, if you want a government that thinks we must do the right thing by future generations, then that choice is Labour. ”

Responding to Miliband’s pitch to Tory voters, Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, attacked Labour over its former £28bn target for a green industrial strategy.

She added: “Their mad 2030 promise is not based on what industry or consumers want – they would see costs implode, mean higher taxes on working people and take us back to square one on the economy.”

Labour did not claim it would decarbonise the economy by 2030 – rather, that is the target for decarbonising electricity, which is less than a fifth of overall UK emissions, and the former £28bn investment target covered the whole of the green economy.

Jamie Peters, the climate coordinator at Friends of the Earth, said: “The Labour party must put the environment at the heart of its general election campaign, with a comprehensive and fully funded plan to retrofit the UK’s heat-leaking homes and ambitious targets to develop the UK’s huge homegrown renewable energy potential.”

Areeba Hamid, the co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s great that we have shadow cabinet buy-in to a bold green industrial strategy, now we need Starmer and Reeves to demonstrate their commitment as well. Ultimately, the leadership must lay out Labour’s plans on green investment to give clear signals to businesses who want to invest in the growing green economy here.”