What is the real distance between Sunak and Starmer on climate policy?

Labor has built much of its vision for the future around energy plans. He argues that the initial £8 billion of public cash over five years he has pledged to his company Great British Energy will kick-start the process of industrial renewal, reviving the economy in the loosely called Red Wall constituencies to deliver jobs as well as securing energy supplies energy and lower bills.

The Tories are trying to characterize this as a return to state control. They say that the job of entrepreneurs is to take risks and pick winners; When politicians try, it ends up costing ordinary people dearly.

You can trust us to keep your energy bills low and protect the country from the whims of tyrants like Putin by delivering new oil and gas from the North Sea, is the conservative message.

There seems to be an ocean of differences between the two main parties. But if you dig into the details of their policies, it’s a different story.

The main climate agenda – getting the UK to net zero emissions by 2050 – has always been a largely cross-party project.

Labor introduced the Climate Change Bill in 2008 to put a legal obligation on future governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Both parties wholeheartedly supported the proposal – only five MPs voted against it.

It was Theresa May’s government that raised the target to 100% emissions – or net zero – in 2019, with renewed support from a huge cross-party majority. This is something Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho must have forgotten when she warned against Labour’s “reckless net zero targets”, external” in recent days. At the time of the vote in 2019, she was not yet an MP.

Ms Coutinho was also highly critical of what she called Labour’s “crazy plans”., external” to decarbonize the grid by 2030. Rishi Sunak described the policy as “utterly absurd”. However, the Conservatives aim for 95% of British electricity to be low-carbon by 2030, with full decarbonization coming five years later. Squeezing those last few percentage points of energy from fossil fuels will undoubtedly be the hardest, but they are not significantly different programs.

What about our vehicles? In September, Rishi Sunak announced with great fanfare that his government intended to extend the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035. Much less publicized was the fact that his government would maintain the obligation on manufacturers to ensure that 80 by then % of car sales will be electric vehicles. In this context, the Labor Party’s plan to return to the ban from 2030 does not look that drastic.

On oil and gas, the Tories in September approved drilling in the controversial Rosebank oil field. It is believed to be the last large, untapped field in the North Sea. The party says plans to license other new oil and gas projects will help guarantee energy security, although in November Coutinho admitted on BBC Breakfast that this would not necessarily reduce bills.