House of Lords rebukes the May government for the net emissions target

Last night, Peers rebuked the Government for committing the UK to a Net Zero emissions target with little scrutiny and no plan for how it might be achieved. (see GWPF report)

 

The Chancellor has warned that the cost of reducing net greenhouse emissions to zero by 2050 could be well in excess of £1 trillion. The sum would fund the salaries of 314,000 nurses for a century. 

 

On Monday, MPs were happy to nod through the measure in less than 90 minutes. As a Statutory Instrument, it only required minimal scrutiny and no impact assessment had to be prepared. 

 

The net zero emissions target is likely to do enormous harm to the poorest people in society who will be asked to pay relatively more for their energy and could be priced out of activities such as driving cars and flying abroad. Not a single MP spoke out against the proposal, instead they all congratulated themselves on how Britain was ‘leading the world’. 

 

Earlier in the week, Lord Lawson had warned Peers in a letter that they risked committing Britain to ‘astronomical costs’ by voting for Net Zero.

 

The debate in the Lords was much more rigorous than in the Commons, with a number of peers warning that the measure had not been properly thought through.

 

As Viscount Ridley explained, the figures provided to the House by the Committee on Climate Change on the cost of Net Zero were vague and opaque:

            the House of Lords reply is seen as a rebuke for the Prime Minister Mrs May.   There is no proof that climate change is due to human activities.