Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has warned “extreme impacts” of climate change in Britain will get “much worse” without action as he defended the Government’s emission targets.
The Conservatives said it will require “taxes and mandation” to meet the carbon goals announced at Cop29 in Azerbaijan, which concluded last week.
Mr Miliband attended the conference with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Baku, where they committed to cutting UK greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035.
It is precisely because Britain represents only around 1% of annual global emissions that we have to work with others to ensure the remaining 99% of emissions are addressed to protect the British people
The conference also announced a 300 billion dollar (£239.5 billion) funding agreement designed to help developing nations combat the effects of global warming.
In a statement to MPs on Tuesday, the Energy Secretary said “Britain is part of a global coalition for ambitious climate action” and targets are “right for Britain, for energy security, for good jobs and growth”.
Speaking in the Commons, he said: “In Baku our message was clear. Britain is back in the business of global climate leadership because we know the impacts of the climate crisis know no borders.
“We have already seen the extreme impacts we can face here in Britain and we know that if we do not act these impacts will get much, much worse.”
He added: “It is precisely because Britain represents only around 1% of annual global emissions that we have to work with others to ensure the remaining 99% of emissions are addressed to protect the British people.
“Now the focus of this Cop was on finance for developing countries because the reality is that unless we persuade developing countries to go down the clean energy development path, we cannot hope to reduce emissions and prevent climate disaster.”
Mr Miliband continued: “The 300 billion dollar deal could lead to emissions reductions, which are the equivalent to more than 15 times the UK’s annual emissions, as well as helping to protect up to one billion people in developing countries from the effects of floods, heat waves and droughts.”
Mr Miliband reiterated that the deal “offers the prospect of export and economic opportunities here in Britain” and so is “absolutely in our national interest”.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said the statement did not reveal “how much this will cost the British people” and that meeting the emission target will require lifestyle changes from the public.
She told MPs: “The Independent Climate Change Committee say that this target would require people to eat less meat and dairy, take fewer flights, swap their boilers for heat pumps and their petrol cars for EVs at a pace that will require taxes and mandation.
“Even the chair of the select committee has acknowledged people will be forced to change their lives.
“But the Secretary of State says not to worry. He will deliver all the savings through energy policy and those plans will lead to higher growth, cutting bills, creating jobs and strengthening national security, but none of those things are true when it comes to his plans.”
She added: “Low growth, high bills, jobs lost, even blackouts for more carbon in the atmosphere – that’s the opposite of what he’s been promising.
“And in Baku while he was signing us up to these targets, without talking about what they will do for life for British people, he was also signing away billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
“He signed us up to a 300 billion dollar annual climate finance target and I’m afraid it’s not credible to say that taxpayers won’t have to pay more, and they deserve to know by how much, so can he tell us today what that new target will mean for British taxpayers?”
Let me give her a little lesson about opposition. The job of opposition is to oppose the government - not to oppose yourself
Mr Miliband said many of the Government’s current climate targets are the same as those agreed to by the Conservatives when in power and said the opposition has now abandoned “any commitment to climate action”.
He told MPs: “There is a pattern here. Every week (Ms Coutinho) takes to Twitter to express her latest outrage about a policy, asking ‘who on earth could support this?’ and every week, someone pops up in her replies and says, politely, ‘you did just a few months back’.”
He added: “Any passing bandwagon and she’ll leap on it. Even if it means trashing her record, and let me give her a little lesson about opposition. The job of opposition is to oppose the government – not to oppose yourself, and this is where she has ended up.
“So out of the window goes any commitment to climate action, ignoring the factors that route to energy security, good jobs and lower bills, ignoring the factors backed by business, ignoring the fact that this country has an honourable tradition of a bipartisan consensus.
“I am happy to say that the last government proposed some ambitious targets, that Cop26 was an important milestone for the world.
“And the truth is about this is it’s not just irresponsible, it’s not just crass opportunism. It’s also actually what helped take the Conservative party down to their worst election defeat in 200 years.”
