October 2, 2023 - 4:20pm
Britain’s Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho today claimed that Net Zero “has become a religion” among climate activists, while labelling Keir Starmer’s approach “short-term”.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Coutinho — who was promoted to her role in August and in doing so became the first member of the Tories’ 2019 intake of MPs to reach the Cabinet — added that it was “immoral” to “impoverish” Britons in the mission to tackle climate change.
“For too many people, [Net Zero] has started to feel like an intolerable cost,” the minister told the conference, “at a time when, after the last few years, they feel that they can least afford it.” Referring to the continent-wide pushback against green policies, Coutinho said that “across Europe, we are seeing the consequences when the public feel they are being forced into the wrong decisions for their homes and their families.”
As an example, she cited the climate-sceptic AfD party in Germany, which is now polling in second place in the country, as well as the increasing number of people in France who believe that climate change is a conspiracy. Also mentioned was the Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), the Dutch party which scored a landslide victory in regional elections earlier this year.
The speech came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last month announced an overhaul of existing Net Zero policies. Recent polling has indicated that this move is overwhelmingly popular among Tory members, while the UK’s population as a whole shows support for the idea of Net Zero without endorsing the damaging policies that it necessitates.
The Energy Secretary argued that the Conservative victory in the Uxbridge by-election in July “showed us what happens when you tax people for using their cars, without thinking about how they would be able to get around otherwise”. By making opposition to Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme integral to their campaign, the Tories were able to hold the constituency which had previously been served by former prime minister Boris Johnson.
“If we are to succeed,” Coutinho told Party Conference, “Net Zero can’t be something that is done to people by a privileged elite. We cannot force people to make the wrong decisions for their families, and it’s immoral to put forward policies that will impoverish people here when emissions are rising abroad”.
Labelling the Conservatives “the party of aspiration and the environment”, Coutinho claimed that while the UK has reduced emissions “rapidly”, other nations “are polluting more — their emissions are rising, and rising fast”. Climate change activist group Just Stop Oil is partially funded by entrepreneur Dale Vince, who is also a Labour donor, and the Energy Secretary suggested that these primarily Left-wing groups “do not get it” on Net Zero. Where the Conservatives see the initiative as “a practical mission to be achieved”, JSO and Extinction Rebellion treat it as “a religion”.
Further, they “show sheer condescension about people’s normal way of life. ‘Do you eat meat? How dare you. You’re flying away for a week in the sun? How selfish. You’re driving to work to put food on the table for your family? You should have chosen a different job'”. According to Coutinho, “it is these zealots who would see the cause of climate change lost. They are more concerned with signalling their own purity than with energising the cause of climate change. They don’t seek to persuade, only to disrupt. They don’t want to engage, only to silence.”
To a warm reception from the audience of Tory activists, she added, “It is not the climate change deniers who threaten Net Zero. It is Keir Starmer’s Labour.”
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SubscribeNothing inspires me to save the planet more than when Hollywood stars and tech billionaires lecture me about my one car and my one family holiday abroad each year, before they jump on their private jets to spend the summer on a yacht.
Hilarious. The Tories are suddenly doing an about face on net zero. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. The math hasn’t suddenly changed. Net zero was doomed to failure and impoverishment when Johnson was elected, and it’s doomed today. Yes, net zero has become religion, but the Tories have been preaching this garbage for decades.
True. But at least they are now talking about the cost and impact in trying to achieve it.
This is fair. Yet it’s all very frustrating. Literally, nothing has changed. We knew then what would be the result of net zero, just as we know now.
Perhaps, historically, the result of the Uxbridge by-election, that he facilitated, will be deemed to be more significant than the entire political career of Boris Johnson himself.
Ironically, Ulez isn’t actually about ‘climate change’, but relates to it’s congeniality adjoined twin, deadly air pollution, instead.
No, they aren’t. They have no idea of the cost, or of the fact that it’s completely unachievable for at least a century (short of some non-existent carbon capture mechanism appearing from the ether).
Yes. That all important first-crack-in-the-dam.
Here in the States we’re still years away from that point.
Problem is that without USA abandoning green nonsense, Europe will carry on regardless.
Only because they believe it will give them electoral advantage.
When they are elected, they will carry on with green policies madness.
The Tories aren’t doing an about face. Their NZ policy was insane before and its insane now. Nothing of substance has actually changed.
#DontPlayTheRiggedGame
The “maths” is constant-what is breaking down is the narrative and its control by vested interests. It was always inevitable that realpolitik would kick in at some point and start to displace ideology. A by product of the fiscal incontinence of the last 15 years is rampant inflation which has brought a much needed dose of reality to the executive who thought that zero interest rates would enable them to mask the awful reality of nut zero for the duration of their political life.The cracks are appearing and will inevitably spread .the Tories (a completely useless bunch of no marks) are simply responding to the psephology.Its how it works.
Sadly, Jim, there’s no about face, just a slowing down of the pace.
None better than a sinner saved!
She can turn on Jordan Peterson’s interview videos and be fed a counter-narrative by rebel economists and climate scientists who reach that precise conclusion.
While the right is becoming so well-represented in modern (digital) print media in the US and Europe, that many older voters will give Tories an ear if there’s an anti-ULEZ message or recognition of tacit consensus that renewables should inflate energy prices.
The truth is that the CCP is being indulged by the Western powers by this Net Zero hustle pushed by the UN and WEF.
Who is going to do it then? At the very least, incentives need to be aligned. Who is going to do that? If they were already aligned we could sit back and let it all come good of it’s own accord. And if there is a bill to be footed, who’s going to foot it?
What she means of course is that it can’t appear to be something that is done to people by a privileged elite.
Regardless of how you feel about climate change, I think we can all agree that wind and solar are very expensive options that won’t work. Nuclear is the only feasible option today.
Wow, just how out of touch can the Tories get before the next election? The right wing loons of the party will love all this of course, but they are an assured vote anyway.
They just sound more and more desperate as they convince themselves this is a winning strategy.
And how is Starmer threatening Net Zero? He’s a prized bellend but that claim is just bizarre.
“as they convince themselves this is a winning strategy”
I imagine the insane amount of cash they’ve splurged on focus groups is helping to convince them it’s a winning strategy. Net Zero is popular until you actually tell the average pleb what it implies for their daily bread.
Well that’s like telling a fat person they need to eat less to lose weight, which of course they know – and then saying, oh hang, no it’s fine eat as much as you like, it’s all the producer’s fault, oh and Keir Starmer is to blame too.
Robbie, can I ask you to confirm that you’re human, just like they do on websites?
I’m convinced that you’re just an AI bot, just churning out mindless unconvincing responses.
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Oh dear, some folks have net zero sense of humour it seems.
You seem to have hit on the exact problem. A strategy that relies on telling fat people to quit eating so much is unlikely to meet with great success. If fat people won’t stop eating for their own good, what makes you think they’ll all abandon fossil fuels for some nebulous notion of common good or for ‘the planet’. Moreover, why would they listen to somebody who’s even fatter. The people advocating for NetZero the loudest are some of the fattest of them all. How can any serious person believe such tactics will ever be successful? The environmental movement is so filled with this sort of utter irrational nonsense that I have difficulty taking them as anything other than deluded religious zealots. In that context, the politicians are just doing what they usually do and taking advantage of said zealotry to get elected and advance their own careers and personal agendas. It’s despicable, of course, but also exactly what I expect from politicians.
Magnificent response. It’s like the 400lb guy telling everyone we must lose 200lb. Doesn’t work so well for the 150lb guy.
Any solution here that destroys the economy isn’t going to work. Particularly if it affects the poor and not the rich – which is true of most carbon taxes, degrowth, anti car philosophy.
Maybe first we should think of banning private jets.