THE CONSERVATIVE Party has said it would remove carbon taxes on British industry if it returns to power, saying the move would protect jobs in energy-intensive sectors.
Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the current system is contributing to deindustrialisation and should be removed “in its entirety”. The proposal includes scrapping the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which limits carbon emissions from heavy industry, power and aviation, the BBC reported.
The UK ETS was introduced in 2021 after Brexit, replacing a European system. Badenoch supported its introduction while serving as a treasury minister. The Conservatives have already proposed removing the scheme for electricity generation.
Badenoch has also said the target of net zero emissions by 2050 is “impossible”. The party plans to replace existing climate laws, including the Climate Change Act 2008, with a new strategy focused on “cheap and reliable” energy.
She said: “We all want to leave a better environment for the next generation, but it is madness to pursue that goal by killing British industry and fatally weakening our national resilience.”
Ceramics UK chief executive Robert Flello, according to the BBC, said high energy costs have become an “existential issue” and added the sector “cannot afford to keep paying a carbon tax that our competitors simply don't face”.
The Conservatives also plan to remove carbon price support and the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which is due next year.
Labour and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit criticised the proposal. Jess Ralston said: “But it's predicated on a UK carbon price and, if we don't have that, revenues that would have been going to Treasury will instead be transferred into EU coffers when British industry exports to the EU, our largest trading partner.”
Energy minister Chris McDonald said: “It's a total embarrassment for her to, yet again, be railing against her own work in government. Her new pledge is wrong and it would hammer industry.”
