Squeezing “every last cubic inch of gas” from the North Sea, re-starting fracking, rejecting windfarms in favour of fossil fuels – the policies espoused by Jacob Rees-Mogg, against a backdrop of rising energy prices, form a clear indication of how the new business secretary will view his brief.
Rees-Mogg will be the core cabinet member as secretary of state for business and energy, with responsibility for meeting the UK’s legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is a goal he has previously described as “a long way off” and “a huge regulatory cost”.
Late on Tuesday night No 10 announced that Graham Stuart would become minister for climate change and be attending cabinet, prompting speculation that Downing Street had succumbed to concerns of green Tories about giving the role to Rees-Mogg as originally planned.
Tom Burke, co-founder of the green thintank E3G and a veteran adviser to governments, summed up the views of many: “He has showed no sign of understanding the complexity or opportunity of net zero. There is nothing in his whole track record that shows any understanding of this issue. The single most important thing to do in energy policy now is to bring demand down. I have no confidence that he will take this forward.”
An investor in oil and coal mining through Somerset Capital Management, the fund management firm he co-founded and still benefits from financially, Rees-Mogg has many times voiced climate denialism – even to the extent of misrepresenting climate science. In 2014, he told Chat Politics that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had found efforts to stop climate change would only work in the very long term.
He claimed: “If you read the IPCC report on [the climate emergency] it said that if you were to take action now to try and stop man-made global warming, it would have no effect for hundreds or possibly a thousand years. I’m all in favour of long-term policymaking but I think that trying to forecast the climate for a thousand years, and what little steps you make now having the ability to change it, is unrealistic. And I think the cost of it is probably unaffordable.”
In fact, the IPCC found that efforts to stop burning fossil fuels now were essential, and failure to do so would have an impact lasting thousands of years.
Rees-Mogg, an Old Etonian, has been an MP for 12 years and has been a prominent Brexiter, leader of the House of Commons and most recently minister for Brexit opportunities. Though he has voted broadly with the Conservative government on issues outside Brexit, his voting record shows little inclination to champion green policies such as net zero, and a zeal for post-Brexit deregulation that campaigners fear will be carried over.
Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “Rees-Mogg is the last person who should be in charge of the energy brief, at the worst possible moment. He blamed ‘climate alarmism’ for high energy bills, pushing David Cameron to ‘cut the green crap’ like incentives for solar, wind and energy efficiency, which has added £150 to every energy bill. Appointing him to the brief now suggests the Tories have learned nothing from years of energy policy incompetence.”
He takes the brief at a time of unprecedented crisis for the UK’s energy industry, and for bill-payers, both domestic and in business. Millions of people are likely to struggle to pay their heating bills this winter, and even the price cap proposed by the prime minister, Liz Truss, will leave many households choosing between heating and eating. Small businesses are facing ruin without government help. The UK is also badly off-track to meet its net zero commitments, despite strong evidence that action to meet them would also bring down bills.
The UK stands in need of vital energy investment, in renewables and low-carbon infrastructure. Green businesses and investors may find having a green energy sceptic as the cabinet minister in charge does not inspire confidence.
Dave Timms, head of political affairs at Friends of the Earth, said: “Extracting more fossil fuels is a false solution to the energy crisis. It’s our failure to end our reliance on gas and oil that’s sent energy bills soaring and left us teetering on the brink of catastrophic climate change. We need a forward-looking, modern energy strategy based on better home insulation and unleashing the full potential of the UK’s homegrown renewables power – not one rooted in dirty fossil fuels of the past.”
Rees-Mogg’s most recent predecessor offers a different example. Kwasi Kwarteng, now chancellor of the exchequer under Truss, took office under Boris Johnson as a confirmed de-regulator, one of the authors of the Britannia Unchained pamphlet that advocated a radical free market. But close associates say he changed his mind while in office, earlier this year taking a strong stance in favour of renewables as a solution to the Ukraine-related rise in energy prices.
“I heard Kwarteng say that all his instincts were free market, but the more he understood of energy policy, the more he understood the need for intervention,” said Shaun Spiers, executive director of the Green Alliance thinktank. “Hopefully Rees-Mogg could go the same way. But nothing about him shows any particular willingness to listen, or to change his mind.”
