The world feels more uncertain and unpredictable just now than at any time in my political lifetime. For Britain – in our values, our approach and our consistency – we owe it to today’s and future generations to be the port in the storm. Nowhere is that more true than on energy and climate. The decisions we take today will shape not just the years ahead but the generations ahead.
That is why it is so important that Keir Starmer set out more than three years ago his mission for Britain to become a clean energy superpower. It is even more relevant and important today than it was back then. And he has rightly shown a resolute determination to stick to it. The argument for a clean power system by 2030 is based on what happened to Britain’s families and businesses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our exposure to fossil fuels meant that, as those markets went into meltdown and prices rocketed, family, business and public finances were devastated. The cost of living impacts caused back then still stalk families today.
It is because we are determined that Britain is never again exposed in this way that the government sought and won a mandate at the last election for clean power – so we could take back control of our energy. The mission is based on the insight that while oil and gas, including from the North Sea, will remain an important part of our energy system for some time to come, clean homegrown power is the only route to true energy security.
So the argument for the clean energy transition is not just the traditional climate case but the social justice case too – it is working people who pay the greatest price for our energy insecurity. There can be no national security without energy security, and dependence on fossil fuels has left us at the mercy of global markets we do not control.
The case for our mission is also about the enormous economic opportunity there is for Britain. According to the CBI, thenet zero economy grew three times faster than the economy as a wholelast year – and already, since the general election, more than £43bn of private investment has been pledged for our clean power mission, creating thousands of jobs across the country. But this is just the start of what we can achieve.
More than ever at this moment, investors are looking for safety and security because the biggest enemy of private investment is uncertainty. Britain offers that certainty. Because of the clarity of our mission, we have been able to drive forward with sweeping reforms to the planning system to speed up clean-power projects and a wholesale revolution in our process of connecting clean energy to the grid, ending the years of failure by the last government which have led to decade-long delays.
Our plan for change is also not just about breaking down the barriers to investment but about offering the muscular industrial policy that is essential in this new and changing world. This is a government that cares about ensuring that we make, buy and sell things in our country. Take steel – the prime minister did not hesitate to act in the national interest to protect the steel industry. This determination is also clear from the new institutions this government has established since the election.
The National Wealth Fund is the government’s clean energy financier and Great BritishEnergyis the government’s publicly owned clean energy company. They are built on a clear proposition: to use public investment to crowd in private investment so we can create the energy generation and supply chains for clean energy in Britain, ensuring more good, unionised jobs at good wages. They are making a real difference already – with 200 schools and 200 hospitals about to get lower energy bills because of Great British Energy.
For all these reasons, we are doubling down on our agenda. Yes, there are siren voices that want to knock us off course. They would keep Britain locked in dependence on global markets we don’t control. They will also make up any old nonsense and lies to pursue their ideological agenda, the latest example being their attempt to use the crisis facing the steel industry for their deeply damaging agenda.
UK Steel says that it is the “UK’s reliance on natural gas power generation” that leaves us with higher prices than international allies—not too much clean energy, but too little. The same dependence that has hit families has hit industry too.
With their insistence on the same failed approach that led directly to the cost of living crisis, and which failed the Tories at the last election, the Conservatives and Reform would leave the country exposed and risk further untold damage to businesses and families. They would forfeit the clean energy jobs of the future and sell future generations down the river by simply shrugging their shoulders at the prospect of climate breakdown.
So if our political opponents want a fight about clean energy, bring it on. We will take the fight to them and pit cheap homegrown power that we control – and a huge economic opportunity for our country – against the alternative of keeping us locked in the grip of markets we can’t control and economic decline. This Labour government will fight for energy security, lower bills, and good jobs to deliver for people now and for generations to come. And this is a fight we will win.
Ed Milibandis Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zero