The Guardian view on climate policy: Britain needs clean power, not culture wars | Editorial

<p>Kemi Badenoch’s plan to scrap the Climate Change Act is reckless. Ed Miliband offers a bolder, fairer vision. The future must be built on renewables</p><p>Let’s scrap Britain’s successful climate law so we can burn more gas, lose investment and have higher bills. Crazy as it might seem, that is the message of Kemi&nbsp;Badenoch’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/02/kemi-badenoch-vows-to-repeal-climate-change-act">new energy strategy</a>. The Conservative leader proposes to repeal the 2008 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrp2k3m3deo">Climate Change Act</a> in favour of a plan to “maximise oil and gas extraction”, and remove all legally binding carbon targets. It’s pitched as pragmatism. But it’s a lurch into ideological self-harm.</p><p>Britain’s energy problem isn’t its climate legislation, which is admired globally, backed by <a href="https://www.upday.com/uk/politics/business-groups-alarmed-by-tory-climate-law-scrap-plan/mk3jhjl#:~:text=Business%20groups%20warn%20of%20economic,the%20Humber%20and%20Teesside%20regions.">industry</a> and <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52033-earth-day-2025-where-do-britons-stand-on-climate-change">supported</a> by the public. It’s that this country remains too dependent on volatile fossil fuels. Emissions targets are not the reason for high bills. It is gas prices, which skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine. They set UK <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484723013057">electricity</a> prices. In <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-why-expensive-gas-not-net-zero-is-keeping-uk-electricity-prices-so-high/">Europe</a>, they don’t – that’s why bills are lower there. Rather, Mrs Badenoch is choosing to follow <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/04/business/power-pr