KEMI Badenoch's claim that net zero is impossible to achieve by 2050 has been branded "total rubbish" by an expert at a top Scottish university.
The Conservative chief gave a speech on Tuesday arguing that the UK has to "get real" about its climate targets, and saying she would be focusing on finding "achievable solutions" instead.
But Professor Dave Reay, chair in carbon management and education at Edinburgh University, said the Tory leader's assessment was incorrect.
He commented: "A net zero UK by 2050 impossible? Total rubbish.
"If Badenoch and her party are truly worried about threats to living standards then they should be pushing the Government to strive even harder on climate action, not backsliding towards the foetid political swamp of climate denial that puts everyone's future at risk."
In a speech to launch the party’s policy renewal process in London, Badenoch said that net zero by 2050 cannot be achieved without “a significant drop in our living standards, or worse, by bankrupting us.”
But naming an alternative date would be “repeating the same mistake” made in setting the current goal.
The party may later come up with its own target if “subject matter experts” decide that one is necessary, she said.
The MP has tasked shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, with help from shadow Scotland secretary and energy minister Andrew Bowie (below) to look at solutions for delivering cheap and clean energy.
She called herself a “net zero sceptic” because of overreliance on China and unreliable targets.
“Net zero by 2050 is impossible,” she said.
“I don’t say that with pleasure. I want a better future and a better environment for our children, but we have to get real.”
It emerged on Tuesday, in a Byline Times article, that Badenoch had moved away from the long-standing commitment after taking donations from key funders of a climate science denial group.
The MP took donations from the Global Warming Policy Foundation and connected pressure group, Net Zero Watch. Both organisations had called for the 2050 target to be scrapped.
Meanwhile, environmental group the WWF said Badenoch is “ignoring the evidence” that the net zero sector is growing faster than the overall economy.
Isabella O’Dowd, WWF’s head of climate policy said: “The UK is a world leader in rolling out renewable energy and in sustainable finance and businesses recognise that decarbonising our economy is the biggest business opportunity of the century.”
Theresa May, who initially set the UK net zero target of 2050, hit back at the current Tory leader after the speech too.
She defended her policy, telling social media: “It is supported by the scientific community and backed by the independent Climate Change Committee as being not just necessary but feasible and cost-effective.
May noted that the world is already seeing the impact of climate change “from extreme weather events to supply chain disruption and increased climate-induced migration”.
“With every additional increment of warming the risks of climate change increase significantly, and at an increasing rate. Delaying action will only harm the next generation and increase both the economic and social costs of climate change,” she said.
