Energy secretary Ed Miliband has accused Nigel Farage of peddling “nonsense and lies” by appearing to blame the government’s commitment to net zero for the crisis in the UK steel industry.
Writing in the Observer, the former Labour leader also warned that if an anti-net zero agenda is pursued, it would not only risk “climate breakdown” but “forfeit the clean energy jobs of the future” in Britain.
Meanwhile Farage, who has accused Miliband of pursuing “net zero lunacy”, told The Sun on Sunday that the policy could become “the new Brexit”.
The Reform UK leader, who wants to abandon the commitment to achieving net zero by 2050, said: “This could be the next Brexit – where Parliament is so hopelessly out of touch with the country.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to double down on the government’s commitment to clean power at an International Energy Agency conference this week in London.
MPs passed an emergency law last week allowing ministers to take control of British Steel to prevent the closure of its blast furnaces and potential widespread job losses after talks with its owners, Jingye, broke down.
What is net zero?
Net zero is an aim to negate the amount of greenhouse gases produced by humans by reducing emissions and trying to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Essentially, it’s the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas that’s produced and the amount that’s removed from the atmosphere.
What are the current UK net zero targets?
The UK has set itself the target of reaching net zero by 2050. That means that by 2050 it aims for its amount of emissions to be balanced by the amount removed from the atmosphere. Scotland also has its own net zero target of 2045.
According to a Commons update on the UK’s net zero plans, the legal definition of net zero as set out in the Climate Change Act is to ensure that the “net UK carbon account” is 100% lower than the 1990 baseline.
It added that this can be achieved through reducing emissions as well as offsetting greenhouse gases, such as planting trees or using carbon capture and storage technologie, which would mean that total greenhouse gas emissions produced would be equal to greenhouse gas equivalents removed from the environment.
The government also has other interim targets, and in November 2024 Sir Keir Starmer announced at COP that the UK’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target will be to reduce emissions by at least 81% compared to 1990 levels by 2035, following advice from the UK’s independent advisory body the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
But his opponents have cast doubt on net zero target – which was originally set by a Conservative government – with current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch saying she believes it is “impossible” without a “serious drop in living standards or by bankrupting us”.
Which countries have achieved net zero?
The UK is not alone in setting a target to reach net zero. According to the website Climate Watch, over 100 nations have pledged to reach net zero by a certain year.
The most ambitious among bigger nations is Finland, whose target is 2035, while Iceland is aiming for 2040, and Germany and Sweden for 2045. Outside Europe, those pledging early carbon neutrality include Mauritania (2030) and Nepal (2045).
Many countries with climate pledges have 2050 as their goal, though many in Asia are aiming for 2060, such as China, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, while India has set 2070 as its target.
According to the World Economic Forum, using data cited from Energy Monitor, eight countries had already achieved net zero in 2022, helping to combat climate change.
These ‘carbon sinks’ – which are said to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year than they emit – include:-
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Bhutan
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Comoros
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Guyana
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Madagascar
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Panama
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Suriname
What does the UK public think of net zero?
According to a YouGov poll in March 2025, 61% of Britons back the 2050 target, versus 24% who oppose it.
Asked: ‘To what extent do you support or oppose the government’s commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050’, some 28% said they strongly support it, along with 33% who answered ‘somewhat support’.
Some 12% said they strongly oppose the plans, while 12% answered ‘somewhat oppose’. And 15% said they don’t know.
This comes despite nearly half of Britons thinking net zero policies have made their energy bills higher. A YouGov poll in February found that 45% of Brits said their bills had increased (27% said a lot while 18% said a little), compared to 27% who said they hadn’t made much difference, and just 2% who thought their bills had decreased.
In November 2024, an article published on the Institute of Government website said that the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) latest progress report had warned that hitting the UK’s 2030 targets would require around 10% of existing UK homes to be heated by a heat pump and the market share of new EVs to increase to nearly 100% – inevitably having an impact on consumers.
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