The Government “is not for bending” on net zero, Ed Miliband has said as he urged opponents of the policy to “bring on the fight”.
Speaking at the end of an international energy security summit in London on Friday, the Energy Secretary hailed the two-day discussions between 60 governments and more than 50 businesses as “unprecedented”.
Mr Miliband told a press conference that the event marks the “coming of age of the era of clean energy” as he argued that international cooperation on renewables and cutting climate emissions to zero overall by 2050 – known as net zero – “makes all our countries stronger”.
Asked whether the talks had “silenced” opponents of net zero, he said: “The critics will not shut up, I’m sure.
“But the critics need to know, if they want to fight about this, this Government says bring it on. Let’s bring on the fight.
“Let’s have the argument and any day of the week, any hour of the day, any month of the year we will have the argument between cheap, clean renewables that give you energy security, lower bills, the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century, against their case to say no to all that, to stick simply with expensive, insecure fossil fuels which gave us the cost-of-living crisis, which ruined family finances, which ruined public finances, which ruined business finances, and they will say no to these huge job opportunities that are on offer.
“So whether it is political parties or other forces that want to take on net zero and the clean energy transition, they need to know that this Government is not for bending, this Government is not for buckling, this Government is standing firm.
“And, you know what, I think the British people are on our side on this.”
It comes a day after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had pushed back on net zero critics at the summit as he used the event to reiterate the Government’s commitment to clean energy as “the only way” to ensure energy security and bring down bills over the long term.
However, the US stance on the clean transition also overshadowed some of the consensus after the country’s acting assistant secretary of international affairs, Tommy Joyce, told the summit that clean power policies are “harmful and dangerous”.
Mr Joyce stopped short of criticising Britain’s push towards clean power on Thursday but criticised the previous US administration’s climate policies.
Downing Street later denied that the UK and US were on “different pages” on green energy.
Asked about the time he spent with Mr Joyce during the summit and if the US official used it as an opportunity to attack climate policies and promote the country’s fossil fuels, Mr Miliband said the Government has been seeking to find “common ground”.
He said: “On the United States, the Prime Minister has shown absolutely the right leadership on this, which is President Trump is the duly elected president of the US, elected on a clear mandate.
“We are the duly elected government of the UK, also elected on a clear mandate. Obviously there are some differences but there is also common ground,” he added.
“Part of our job is to find that common ground, to work together with the US on those issues and they’re the discussions we had at this (summit),” he said.
Mr Miliband later cited the growth of nuclear and geothermal energy as a shared interest with the US, despite the country coming at it “from a different perspective”.
“The fundamental thing here goes to what the British people expect of us,” he said, adding it is to “stick to the mandate on which they elected us”.
“They also expect us to reach out and seek to find common ground and that is what we’re doing.”
Source: independent.co.uk
