New report calls for net zero ministry to be abolished
Push for Ed Milibandâs department to be replaced with slimmed down ministry, focused on slashing energy bills
A new report has called for Ed Milibandâs net zero ministry to be abolished, warning Britons are paying too high a price for climate change policies.
New research published on Thursday by the Prosperity Institute argued consumers were getting a raw deal because energy and climate change policies come under one roof â the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, (DESNZ) led by Mr Miliband.
It called for Mr Milibandâs department to be abolished by the next government and replaced with a slimmed down ministry, focused on bringing down the cost of energy bills.
The Prosperity Institute report, titled âItâs Broke, Fix It: Where British Energy Policy Went Wrong and How to Get it Rightâ, calls to âabolish and replaceâ DESNZ, warning it has allowed energy policy to be âtotally captured by vested interestsâ.
The report said: âFar from the Whitehall myth of âspeaking truth to powerâ, the department has overseen far and away the worst policy disaster since 1945, all the while being a cheerleader for it.
âRather than attempt to reform the department and to make it capable of developing and implementing policies needed to reverse the mess it created, a new Government should create a new, small, high-quality, policy-only department.â
The report also called for Ofgem, Britainâs energy regulator, to be reformed and its leadership replaced, branding it an âenforcerâ for the climate change policies of DESNZ.
âOfgem, too, has been completely captured by the climate lobby,â it said, accusing the regulator of âpure climate propagandaâ.
The report has been endorsed by Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, who is a self-described ânet zero scepticâ.
In her foreword to the report, Ms Coutinho said: âSince the mid-2000s, the British people have been promised something that seemed too good to be true.
âA swiftly delivered green energy sector built on solar and wind power that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and reduce our carbon emissions and energy bills at the same time.
âAll this was in aid of reaching net zero. The trouble is, it was too good to be true.â
Ms Coutinho warned that the energy market no longer âprioritises the consumerâ because climate targets were put before a focus on keeping costs down.
She continued: âAs we look to a future unburdened by net zero and the Climate Change Act, the ideas in this report will be immensely useful to debate so we can chart the journey back to an energy system that puts consumers at its core.â
Mr Miliband has been accused of putting net zero targets before the economy by attempting to decarbonise 95 per cent of the electricity grid by 2030.
This week, he launched a ÂŁ15bn green energy plan to fit solar panels, heat pumps, insulation and double glazing to five million homes at the expense of the taxpayer.
Report author Rupert Darwall said: âWhichever party or parties form the next government, they have only one chance to get energy policy right by applying the lessons of the past and decisively breaking with two decades of policy failure.â
Fred de Fossard, director of strategy at the Prosperity Institute, said: âAccess to cheap and abundant energy is one of the fundamental pillars of national prosperity. Without it, sustained economic growth is not possible.
âBritainâs bureaucracy is not fit for purpose. We will not restore sovereignty and prosperity to British energy policy without wholesale institutional change.â
