Achieving net zero by 2050 is “impossible”, Kemi Badenoch is to declare in a rebuke of one of her predecessor’s key policies.
The Tory leader will hit out as she launches a “policy renewal programme” which will eventually form the basis of the party’s next election manifesto.
Theresa May pledged that the UK would achieve net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century in 2019 in one of her final acts as prime minister.
She said the move would allow the UK “to be truly proud of our record in tackling climate change”.
“This country led the world in innovation during the Industrial Revolution, and now we must lead the world to a cleaner, greener form of growth,” May said.
But in a major speech on Tuesday, Badenoch will say that the then PM introduced the policy with “no plan” on how to achieve it.
She will say: “A multi-trillion, 30-year project touching every single aspect of our lives was decided in 90 minutes without a single vote.
“And, amongst the MPs who spoke that day, only a handful sounded notes of caution. I was one of them. I asked for the plan, and I waited and waited and waited – 845 days later, one came, and it wasn’t enough.”
The Tory leader will add: “We’ve got to stop government by press release. It’s exactly the reason that the political class has lost trust.
“The only way that we can regain it is to tell the unvarnished truth. Net zero by 2050 is impossible.
“I don’t say that with pleasure, or because I have some ideological desire to dismantle it – in fact, we must do what we can to improve our natural world.
“I say it because to anyone who has done any serious analysis knows it can’t be achieved without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us.
“And responsible leaders don’t indulge in fictions which are going to make families poorer or mortgage their children’s future – particularly without the rest of the world doing the same, making our country less safe, less secure and less resilient.
“It’s time for the West to stop pretending everything will be fine. This is not making a moral judgement on net zero. I’m certainly not debating whether climate change exists. It does. I badly want to leave a much better environmental inheritance for my children and for yours.
“But it doesn’t look like the West is going to get remotely close to net zero by 2050.”
But Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, criticised Badenoch.
He said: “It is a mistake for Kemi Badenoch to have jumped the gun on her own policy review and decided net zero isn’t possible by 2050.
“This undermines the significant environmental legacy of successive Conservative governments who provided the outline of a credible plan for tackling climate change.”
Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said it was “dangerous and downright wrong for the leader of a major political party to play politics with our collective future – particularly that of young people”.
He said: “The Conservative leader saying she wants to do all she can to protect the natural world is entirely meaningless, when it comes in the same breath as claiming net zero by 2050 is impossible, without a shred of evidence.”
