Britain’s goal of hitting net zero by 2050 is ‘sinister’ and will impoverish millions of people, Donald Trump’s most senior energy official has warned.
In a speech yesterday, Chris Wright claimed green policies were being used as a facade to expand government control and ‘shrink human freedom’.
He said that the roll-out of wind farms and solar panels across the UK had pushed up energy prices and made millions of households poorer.
The US energy secretary told a conference of conservative thinkers in London: ‘This is impoverishing your own citizens in a delusion that this is somehow going to make the world a better place. It’s not.’
‘Net zero 2050 is a sinister goal. It’s a terrible goal. It’s unachievable by any practical means,’ he added.
‘The aggressive pursuit of it – and you’re sitting in a country that has aggressively pursued this goal – has not delivered any benefits but it’s delivered tremendous costs.’
Mr Wright’s comments came as Ed Miliband last week promised a permanent fracking ban despite the discovery of a large UK gas field.
The energy secretary and Sir Keir Starmer have continued to support the policy despite experts arguing that gas is the essential ‘bridging fuel’ needed to wean Britain off oil.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump returned to the White House last month on the platform of ‘drill, baby, drill’.
He has also called for the US to withdraw from the Paris accord – a legally binding international agreement on climate change.
Mr Wright was speaking on Monday at the Arc 2025 conservative conference in London and he appeared via video link.
He warned that if countries make energy more expensive, they will in turn ‘lower the standard of living’ for their populations.
Mr Wright was also critical of climate change activists who ‘scare children’ about the effects of global warming.
It comes the Labour government has promised an array of green policies, including a pledge to make the electricity system ‘clean’ by 2030.
Mr Miliband has also insisted that it is fossil fuels which have caused energy prices to increase, not green initiatives.
He believes that green options will lead to ‘cheaper, more secure electricity for households’.
Mr Miliband was criticised last week for his commitment to banning fracking – despite the discovery of the gas field in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
It is believed that the area could provide the UK with a decade of fuel, create more jobs and reduce the country’s reliance on imports as the renewable industry expands.
According to modelling by the government’s climate watchdog, Britain faces a massive shortage of gas between now and 2050.
But a spokesperson for Mr Miliband said: ‘We intend to ban fracking for good, as per our manifesto commitments. We will update on this in due course.’
Shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie warned Labour’s ‘ideological drive against oil and gas’ was barring the country from accessing valuable reserves.
He added that the Government could act now to ensure energy security – but he believed it will not.
Reform’s Richard Tice also criticised Mr Miliband’s comments, saying ‘sensible nations’ would embrace the ‘great news’ of a gas field discovery and extract fuel from it to provide cheap, reliable energy and create jobs and growth.
A Department of Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: ‘The biggest risk to our energy security is staying dependent on fossil fuel markets.
‘Only by sprinting to clean power by 2030 can the UK take back control of its energy and protect both family and national finances from price spikes.’
Meanwhile, concerns have also been raised about China now has a stake in Britain’s energy industry amid the push towards net zero.
The Daily Mail has reported that in January last year, a solar energy storage plant began operations in Thanet, Kent, equipped with lithium batteries supplied by a Chinese factory.
Its power storage systems were provided by another Chinese company, Shanghai Electric, and its opening marked the completion of an impressive UK solar portfolio for the firm, including projects in Lincolnshire, Devon, Winchester, Essex, Norfolk, Scunthorpe and Grimsby.
In a comprehensive audit of Beijing’s creeping infiltration of our energy industry, the Mail found that Chinese firms are now linked to around a third of all offshore wind projects in the UK, worth a total of £56 billion.
And, in an ominous sign for our national security, four of the companies have been placed on a Pentagon blacklist for allegedly working with the Chinese military.
Meanwhile, at least half a dozen Beijing-backed firms singled out for their links to human rights abuses have extensive solar power portfolios in Britain.
In response to the Mail’s findings, Luke de Pulford, chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, warned: ‘This degree of dependency on a totalitarian state which wants to reshape the world order in its own image is utter madness.’
Chinese manufacturers account for 80 per cent of the global supply of solar panels – and 98 per cent of those already installed in Britain.
This monopoly has been achieved – in part – through the exploitation of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of north-west China.
The US and EU have passed laws banning solar products made by slave labour. But not the UK.
Instead, Energy Secretary Mr Miliband decided to approve three huge solar farms in July, including the 2,100-acre Mallard Pass project on the Lincolnshire/Rutland border to be built by Canadian Solar.
The company has been accused by Tory MP Alicia Kearns of ‘maple-washing’ – an attempt to ‘distract’ from its true origins in China. Although based in Canada, it employs more than 80 per cent of its workers in China.
In 2021, four shipments of solar panels made by Canadian Solar were seized by the US government over allegations they were linked with slave labour from the Uyghur Xinjiang regions.
The company has also been accused of links to a firm implicated in the forced transfer of Uyghurs to factories.
Canadian Solar denies this and has said it ‘strongly condemns’ forced labour of any kind, adding: ‘We are confident in the management quality processes we have in place across our international supply chains.
‘We have undertaken internal investigations and found no evidence of forced labour within our company or our supply chain.’
Last week, energy minister Kerry McCarthy defended engaging with China, telling MPs: ‘We absolutely need to attract the investment we need to meet our clean power mission to secure our future energy security and in the long run bring down bills for the British people.
‘We need to balance national security concerns in tandem with that.’