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Tony Blair has come under criticism from climate experts and politicians after warning that any strategy relying on rapidly phasing out fossil fuels was “doomed to fail”.
The former prime minister’s comments, published in a report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), triggered an internal row within Labour, with some accusing him of playing into the hands of a narrative used by rightwing parties to delay climate action.
Blair argued the political case for net zero was faltering and that governments should prioritise “realistic” climate strategies, including a greater focus on adaptation measures and technology-based solutions.
He noted the current climate approach “isn’t working”, with the debate having “become irrational” and people “turning away from the politics of the issue because they believe the proposed solutions are not founded on good policy”.
“In developed countries, voters feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal,” Blair wrote in the foreword for a report from the TBI.
A recent YouGov poll found that 61% of people either strongly supported or somewhat supported the government’s commitment to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
Only 24% said they somewhat opposed or strongly opposed it and 15% said they didn’t know. Fifty-two per cent of voters who backed the Conservatives at the last general election supported the net zero plans, with 38% of them opposing it and 11% in the “didn’t know” category.
Climate experts hit back, accusing Blair of giving political cover to fossil fuel interests and weakening momentum behind the UK’s legally binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Lady Brown, of the independent Climate Change Committee, said Blair’s intervention risked sending the wrong message at a crucial moment.
“My concern is that people might take away a message from that report that we should do adaptation instead of mitigation, and that is absolutely the wrong message,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We need to do adaptation, because even if we get to net zero by mid-century, there’s still a huge amount of climate change to come, and we need to be ready for that. But we can’t adapt to everything.
“As people know who live on the coast and suffer coastal erosion and flooding, no, we can’t adapt to everything. It’s absolutely critical that alongside adaptation, we are reducing emissions as well.”
Dale Vince, a Labour party donor and founder of the renewable energy company Ecotricity, accused Blair of talking “nonsense”, and that he “expected better than this from the TBI”.
In a statement, he said: “This from Tony Blair is net zero nonsense. He talks of growing fossil demand from China, when in fact it has peaked. He says we need less focus on renewable energy and more on carbon capture – one is cheap and abundant and prevents carbon emissions, the other is an incredibly expensive way of trying to deal with emissions. Prevention (green energy) is always better and cheaper than the cure.”
A senior Labour MP said: “It’s maddening. Blair parachutes in and is handing talking points to the Tories and Reform on a silver platter. TBI might want to remember it’s not running the country.”
The Green party peer Jenny Jones described the former Labour prime minister as “completely out of touch” on climate policy. She said: “UKLabour should ignore him as a past relic. Net Zero is popular with people. Who can argue with warmer homes, better public transport and (potentially) much cheaper energy, when we unlink from gas.”
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In an attempt to calm the row, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, said Blair was making a “valid and important contribution” to the debate on net zero.
Reed told Times Radio he did not agree that Blair’s intervention was a “public tantrum”.
“He’s making a valid and important contribution to a very significant debate that we’re having,” Reed said, adding: “I agree with much of what he said, but not absolutely every word and dot and comma of it. But this government is moving to clean energy because it’s best for Britain. It’s more energy security for Britain.”
The Conservative environment spokesperson, Victoria Atkins, said Blair’s criticism sent a “clear message” to the government, for it to “rethink” its approach to net zero.
Atkins told Sky News: “A couple of months ago, Kemi Badenoch gave a big speech about net zero, her concerns about it, how the targets that have been laid are proving impossible to meet. Lo and behold, it seems now Sir Tony Blair agrees with her, and it’s the Labour government that perhaps has lost their way in this argument.”
She added: “If Tony Blair – even Tony Blair – doesn’t agree with the Labour government, then that is quite a clear message, I would imagine, to them, that they have got to rethink this.”
On Tuesday, Badenoch used the blackouts in Spain and Portugal as an example of the dangers of “rushing ahead” with plans for a transition to clean energy without the right infrastructure in place, which Downing Street dismissed as “speculation”.
