UK should stop trying to beat the world in race to net zero, energy minister says

The government’s target of net zero by 2050 has become a flashpoint in British politics (Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

A government energy minister has said the UK should avoid trying to go ‘far in advance’ of all other countries in the race to cut carbon emissions.

Lord Callanan, the minister for energy efficiency and green finance, told Metro.co.uk that Britain is proud to be the G7’s top slasher of emissions ‘at the moment’.

But he added that efforts to continue pushing far beyond the rest of the world risked making the country uncompetitive.

The Tory peer was speaking after Rishi Sunak appeared to suggest he wanted the UK to become less ambitious in its climate efforts.

In a major speech on Monday, the prime minister said: ‘I reject the ideological zeal of those who want us to adopt [net zero] policies that go further, faster than any other country, no matter the cost or disruption to people’s lives.’

Lord Callanan suggested the UK may stay on top, but shouldn’t try to widen the gap.

He said: ‘What the prime minister is saying is that we are as a country responsible for about 1% of worldwide emissions. So yes, we have to decarbonize, we’re doing it.

‘But we’ve got to be careful to make sure that we don’t, with our revolutionary zeal, go so much further and faster than other countries are and put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage.

‘So it’s about getting the balance right between, yes, we want to be ambitious, but we need to do it in a sensible and pragmatic way.’

The minister added: ‘This point that he’s making is that we have to do it in a sensible and pragmatic way and, you know, let’s not get far in advance of everybody else.’

Net zero, the name given to the government’s effort to balance the amount of carbon the UK emits with the amount of emissions removed from the atmosphere, is a controversial topic among Conservatives.

Figures such as Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg have questioned the cost of achieving that target by 2050, saying it must not come at the expense of the economy.

However, Lord Callanan argued that while it is ‘expensive in terms of capital’, there is nevertheless a ‘direct revenue benefit’.

Lord Callanan was guided around the new heat pump system at Hammersmith Hospital (Picture: Lauren Hurley/Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

He was speaking at the Hammersmith Hospital in west London, a beneficiary of the latest round of the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

Across three phases since 2020, the scheme has awarded around £2.5 billion in funding to public buildings such as schools, libraries, hospitals and prisons, so they can be made more energy efficient.

So far, more than 930 organisations have been granted funding for almost 1,200 projects.

The peer said: ‘The money we spent on decarbonisation here on energy efficiency measures is saving this hospital trust alone £1 million a month on direct energy bills. That’s money that goes directly into public services.’

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