Overview

• The Conservatives say they would replace the 2008 law with a strategy prioritising “cheap and reliable” power and remove statutory five‑year carbon budgets, with the future of the Climate Change Committee left uncertain.
• Theresa May and former COP26 president Alok Sharma warned the move would squander the UK’s climate leadership and risk jobs, investment and international standing.
• Energy Secretary Ed Miliband condemned the proposal as an economic disaster, while the Liberal Democrats accused the Tories of chasing Reform UK, which also promises to scrap net zero policies.
• Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho defended the shift, arguing the Act forces costly decisions that keep electricity prices high and that policy should put cheap power first.
• Kemi Badenoch, who has already branded the 2050 net zero target impossible and backs greater North Sea extraction, defended the repeal push ahead of the party conference, as experts noted UK emissions have halved since 1990 under the current framework.