Overview

• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to scrap the Climate Change Act and replace it with a strategy prioritising cheap, reliable power, alongside expanded North Sea oil and gas.
• Repeal would remove statutory five‑year carbon budgets and could abolish the independent Climate Change Committee, though the party has not set out detailed replacements or costings.
• Theresa May and former COP26 president Alok Sharma condemned the move, warning it would shatter cross‑party consensus, risk jobs and deter future investment.
• Business and energy groups including the CBI and Energy UK said the Act provides legal certainty for billions in clean‑energy investment and that unpicking it would unsettle markets.
• Badenoch defended the plan as necessary to cut bills and revive industry, while Labour’s Ed Miliband called it an economic disaster and Reform UK signalled support.