Lancashire residents are being made poorer by unachievable attempts to hit net zero targets by 2050, according to the new environment cabinet member at Lancashire County Council.
Reform UK’s Councillor Joshua Roberts criticised the government’s legally binding carbon reduction commitments.
Cllr Roberts, who was elected in May, also left unanswered a direct question about whether he even accepted “the science” behind climate change.
The member for rural affairs, environment and communities was speaking at a meeting of the full council in response to a request from Labour group leader Cllr Mark Clifford for an update on what the local authority was doing to support the nationwide 2050 goal.
Having listed a series of energy reduction and sustainable transport projects, Cllr Roberts seized the opportunity to take aim at net zero.
Net zero aims to ensure the total volume of greenhouse gases emitted by the UK into the atmosphere has stopped growing, in order to combat climate change.
Cllr Roberts said: “Since the UK’s net zero targets were enshrined in law, household energy bills have climbed sharply, partly because the cost of subsidising offshore windfarms, bioenergy plants and hydrogen trials are forced onto every consumer’s bill.”
Cllr Roberts is angry about a wind farm plan as some cables will need putting underground (Image: Mike Setchell/Unsplash) The notion ‘green subsidies’ caused energy bills to rise has been repeatedly debunked, and is actually due to the wholesale cost of gas being so high, with roughly two-thirds of the UK’s consumption coming from imported gas.
Cllr Roberts went on: “Low-income families who spend a larger share of their income on energy have felt these price hikes most severely, eroding living standards and widening fuel poverty gaps.
“Heavy manufacturing sectors have complained of soaring operational costs and regulatory uncertainties.
“Companies in steel, ceramics and chemicals face stiff competition from abroad where energy remains cheaper and environmental regulations less oppressive.”
He also blasted the controversial Morgan and Morecambe windfarm project off the Fylde coast – which, if approved, would provide high levels of clean, renewable energy but would require major on-shore underground cabling operations across the borough.
He claimed it threatens to “destroy more than 600 acres of cherished greenbelt, productive farmland and vital wildlife habitats”.
Lancashire County Council leader, Reform’s Stephen Atkinson Labour’s Cllr Clifford said he had been left “confused” by the response, because county council leader Cllr Stephen Atkinson had said at a separate cabinet meeting last week that he thought “the climate science [around global warming] is correct”.
Cllr Roberts was asked whether he, too, “believes in the science of climate change”. However, the cabinet member instead returned to his critique of net zero.
He went on: “We don’t want to set targets which are unachievable, at the cost of the household resident. This net zero target is making us poorer.
“I agree we need to look at alternative sources which are low carbon. Small modular nuclear reactors are the way forward.”
Cllr Roberts was twice more pressed by Labour councillor Samara Barnes to respond to the specific question about his belief, or otherwise, in the climate science with a “yes or no” answer, but twice he refused to answer
He added: “Reducing energy use and emissions from buildings is a priority, but it’s also one of the most complex areas of decarbonisation.
“We shouldn’t make the residents of Lancashire poorer [for an] unachievable goal, which is just ridiculous.”
Green Cllr Gina Dowding said Reform is in the pocket of oil and gas firms The Climate Change Committee, the government’s statutory adviser for climate change, said in its progress report on the net zero target last year that the new Labour government would “have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments”.
It noted that low-carbon technologies are becoming cheaper, although uptake remains low, and said there was an increasing need to focus on how the UK adapts to climate changes that have already happened.
Reform-controlled West Northamptonshire Council this week ditched local net zero targets, however, Lancashire County Council had not set any such specific ambitions, nor declared a climate emergency, under the previous Conservative administration.
Instead, the authority had pledged, in 2020, to “transition” the local economy away from its reliance on carbon by the end of the current decade. That commitment was secured by Green Party group leader Gina Dowding, who remains in the same role today.
On Cllr Roberts’ comments, Cllr Dowding questioned why Reform was concerned about subsidies for the likes of wind and solar projects, but were “willing to allow [them for] the fossil fuel sector”.
She added: “There are direct and indirect subsidies provided to the sustainable, non-polluting renewable energy sector, but government subsidies in the form of tax relief to fossil fuel industries are costing us even more.
“These include corporation tax relief on North Sea oil and gas investments.
“Between 2015 and 2023, the fossil fuel sector received roughly £20 billion more in total support than renewables; £80bn versus around £60 billion.
“A fifth of the money given directly to the fossil fuel sector was to support new extraction and mining.
“It is not difficult to work out why Reform UK do not want to challenge oil and gas subsidies; they are financed by backers with huge interests in that sector.
“Reform should unreservedly commit to much-needed action to make us more resilient to climate impacts, as well as to measures to reduce polluting emissions from buildings and homes, transport and industry.
“Greater flood resilience, warm homes with lower bills and food security would benefit all residents in Lancashire.”