Dear [Name],
Labour has been in power now for 100 days. They made big promises on climate. How are they measuring up to those promises? It's a mixed picture! We've laid out the substantive issues below.
GOOD: Foreign Secretary David Lammy wants to "make the climate and nature central to all the Foreign Office does."
GOOD: Ed Miliband appointed Chris Stark, formerly of the Climate Change Committee, to head Mission Control tasked with turbocharging UK to clean power by 2030. Rachel Kyte has been appointed UK Climate Envoy, reinstating a key role ditched by Sunak.
DOUBTFUL: Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out in 2020 to be "Britain's first green chancellor". This is looking unlikely, as she tightens the purse-strings and pursues growth at any cost - see Airport Expansion below. We'll update you after studying the budget on 30th October.
GOOD: The new government immediately set up GB Energy to "invest in wind and solar projects, as well as newer technologies including floating offshore windfarms … and energy storage." It's also intended to enable faster grid connections, ending the delays faced by new renewables.
VERY GOOD: It will be funded through an extended windfall £8.3bn tax on oil and gas firms
DOUBTFUL: Also includes "hydrogen and carbon capture"
VERY GOOD: de-facto ban immediately lifted
VERY GOOD: Labour has ruled out issuing new oil and gas licences for the North Sea.
BAD: it has not ruled out approving projects that already have a licence, but have not yet received consent to begin development. The UK government could approve 13 new oil and gas projects in the North Sea, with the fuel produced emitting 350 MtCO2e, equal to about one year of UK emissions.
Ed Miliband claimed this 6th auction was record-breaking. In fact the 4th was bigger in terms of capacity. Note that the previous government had increased the offer price (since the previous failed auction), which attracted many more suppliers to bid.
GOOD: Labour increased the auction budget by 50%
MORE REQUIRED: even bigger auctions will be needed in the near future to hit Labour's commitment to decarbonise the grid by 2030. They would be truly record-breaking.
VERY GOOD: Labour has confirmed it will reinstate the 2030 ban on sales of new cars running solely on petrol or diesel
BAD: New hybrid car sales will be allowed until 2035
GOOD: they will retain the ZEV mandate, which means four-fifths of manufacturers' cars must be pure electric by 2030
Controversial! The government has committed to spend £21.7bn over 25 years on the construction of CCS facilities.
GOOD: The Climate Change Committee describe CCS as critical for decarbonising the UK's heavy industry and a "necessity" for the UK to reach its legally binding target for net-zero emissions by 2050.
VERY BAD: George Monbiot suggests the cost will be much higher and the government is about to give a binding commitment locking us into "blue" hydrogen (derived from natural gas) and imports of leakily fracked gas. And the government has had to break its own rules on subsidising decarbonisation to do so.
VoteClimate says: if (a big if) the UK can find a way to commercialise CCS, our market-leading position would bring big economic and climate benefits. However, we must ensure we're not locked into a very expensive white-elephant technology eg why use energy to separate hydrogen from methane and bury the carbon, when it can be extracted from water using surplus renewable electricity.
VERY GOOD: The proposed coal mine in Cumbria was judged to be illegal after Labour withdrew support for it.
DOUBTFUL: Friends of the Earth say of the new planning framework: "If nothing changes, the Government is essentially allowing the English planning system to remain open to considering new oil, gas and coal developments."
The UK became the first industrialised nation to end coal-fired electricity generation. This was scheduled in 2023 by the previous government.
CLIMATE CRIME: 102 days in power and Labour has backed plans for Stansted Airport to double in size. Simply unbelievable.
NO NEWS YET: The Labour Manifesto promised to invest an extra £6.6bn in insulation upgrades for 5 million homes.
Thanks to The Guardian's Fiona Harvey for her excellent review Is Labour on track to meet its promises on the environment?
VoteClimate is run entirely by three volunteers led by Ben Horton. We have a small but growing stream of income from members who choose to pay us a monthly or annual subscription. This is really encouraging: it shows that members value what we’re doing and makes us a sustainable organisation. If you are not yet a subscriber, please sign up, with huge thanks from all of us:
With very best wishes from everyone in the VoteClimate team
We're running two email lists:
If you want more frequent updates please follow @VoteClimateUK on Twitter or @VoteClimate_UK on Instagram.
You can opt out at any time by replying "unsubscribe".
Back to: News & Analysis