Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch just announced her party is abandoning the UK’s legally-binding net zero 2050 target – a target passed into law by a previous Conservative government in 2019. Kemi doesn’t care that the world is on fire, crops are failing, and people are dying. She thinks Net Zero by 2050 is ‘impossible’ and will damage the economy.
Badenoch’s anti-science rejection of Net Zero is reckless, and designed to stoke culture wars. The facts are clear: Net Zero isn’t just essential to avoid climate catastrophe—it’s the smart economic choice. Here’s why:
✅ £40 billion saving every year by 2050:
The Climate Change Committee has shown that investing in Net Zero will generate UK annual savings of almost £40 billion every year by 2050, delivering lasting prosperity.
✅ Global benefit of $43 trillion:
International business consultants Deloitte warn that a continued lack of serious action on the climate crisis will cost the world $178 trillion. But accelerating Net Zero creates $43 trillion in benefits.
✅ A clean energy system is far cheaper:
One landmark study finds that electrifying everything and ditching fossil fuels will save nations over 60% on energy costs—because wasting all that heat from burning fossil fuels is just inefficient. The study modelled 3 years of power grid data across 145 countries, and demonstrated that 100% renewables is feasible, and without fake solutions like carbon capture.
✅ Global savings on energy costs:
One landmark study finds that electrifying everything and ditching fossil fuels will save nations over 60% on energy costs—because wasting all the heat from burning fossil fuels is just inefficient. The study modelled 3 years of power grid data across 145 countries, and demonstrated that 100% renewables is feasible, and without fake solutions like carbon capture.
✅ The faster we go, the more we save:
Researchers at Oxford University are clear that the faster we move towards Net Zero, the more we’ll save. Their research confirms that by “transitioning to a decarbonised energy system by around 2050 is expected to save the world at least $12 trillion, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use”. Why would Kemi Badenoch ignore these experts?
✅ Bold action makes people better off:
Economists like Angela Francis—Director of Policy Solutions at WWF— are clear that bold action to transition to clean energy will make people better off, and fast. This is the best antidote to Reform, not aping their policies.
Click here to watch Angela’s Ted Talk.
🌍 Delay means catastrophe. A wealth of expert advice has established beyond doubt that putting our heads in the sand will mean things getting worse fast—threatening collapse of our economies. It’s extraordinary that Governments supposedly interested in growth are simply ignoring these strong warnings.
If Governments don’t take vital action to protect us, things are going to get really bad. Expert advisers to the insurance industry warn we’re heading for “catastrophic societal and economic impacts“:
❌ 4 billion deaths by 2050, and a 50% collapse in GDP by 2070 if we fail to act.
❌ 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050, forced to leave their homes by extreme heat, drought, and crop failure—according to Zurich Insurance.
❌ Scientists warn of socio-economic collapse: 15,000 scientists wrote to warn of “potential collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and freshwater” on our current trajectory.
Fossil fuels may have powered our societies but they’re now making us poorer. In just one winter (2022/23), the UK Government paid out £40 billion to protect families from soaring gas prices. That’s not investment in our future—it’s money straight into the coffers of oil and gas giants.
The Solution? The Climate and Nature Bill.
We need science-led, legally binding action—not political backsliding or Trump-style culture wars. The Climate and Nature Bill is the plan to secure a safe, prosperous future for everyone.
