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Sir Keir Starmer has backed clean energy as “the only way” to ensure energy security and bring down bills over the long term, in a speech pushing back on net zero critics.
The Prime Minister used an energy security summit in London to confirm the Government’s commitment to clean power, warning the UK had paid the price for Russia “weaponising energy” and the country’s exposure to the “rollercoaster of international fossil fuel markets”.
He insisted that “energy security is national security and therefore a fundamental duty of government”, but warned it could not be delivered by defending the status quo or trying to turn back the clock.
In a rebuttal to critics of renewables and the push to cut climate emissions to zero overall by 2050 – known as net zero – he said going slow on clean energy would “serve no one”.
After the US’s acting assistant secretary of international affairs, Tommy Joyce, claimed at the summit that clean power policies are “harmful and dangerous”, No 10 said the two countries are on completely different pages when it comes to green energy.
Sir Keir told the conference: “Homegrown clean energy is the only way to take back control of our energy system, deliver energy security and bring down bills for the long term,” adding it is in “my Government’s DNA”.
“Now I know some in the UK don’t agree with that. They think energy security can wait. They think tackling climate change can wait.
“But do they think billpayers can wait too? Do they think growth can wait? Do they think we can win the race for green jobs and investment by going slow?
“That would serve no one. Instead, this Government is acting now.”
Earlier at the summit, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the UK’s clean power push is about security as much as fighting climate change, warning that “as long as energy can be weaponised against us, our countries and our citizens are vulnerable and exposed”.
“Our vision of low-carbon power goes well beyond the climate imperative,” he said.
“Ours is a hard-headed approach to the role of low-carbon power as a route to energy security.”
Mr Miliband read out a message from the King which said green energy would make countries’ power systems “more resilient and secure”.
The Government is using the summit to push its net zero plans on the international stage – urging investment from global investors – at a time when the US is turning its back on the green transition, and when it faces attacks at home on net zero policies from the Conservatives and Reform.
Labour has pledged to decarbonise the power grid by 2030, mainly by building vast amounts of new wind and solar farms across the UK and off its shores.
It launched publicly owned energy company Great British Energy last year in a bid to spur more developers and investors to invest in clean power in the UK.
As part of the summit, Sir Keir announced he would fast-track £300 million of GB Energy’s £8.3 billion funding over the next five years for offshore wind supply chains.
The Government has also done a deal with energy firm Eni which will see the company invest £2 billion in supply chains for its carbon capture and storage project in Liverpool Bay, which it is hoped will generate 2,000 jobs.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency who was co-hosting the event, said global economies are “interdependent” and “interconnected” in the green energy transition.
Speaking at the summit, he said: “Every economy has its own pathway for energy. We should understand and respect it.
“However, dear colleagues, no country small or big is an energy island.
“We are interdependent and through many ways, through energy prices… through technology innovation… we are interconnected.
“So lasting solutions to energy security goes through co-operation. I say co-operation, it is in fact the reason we host this meeting today.”
English (US) ·