Ed Miliband is to explicitly call out politicians who reject net zero policies for betraying future generations in an unprecedented update to parliament about the state of the climate crisis, which he is calling “an exercise in radical truth-telling”.
With Reform UK proposing to scrap all net zero measures and even questioning the science behind climate change, and the Conservatives ditching environmental targets, Miliband hopes to regain the initiative with a stark warning to MPs.
In what is planned to be an annual event, the energy security and net zero secretary will make a “state of the climate” address to the Commons setting out the findings of a new Met Office-led report that says the UK is already facing extreme weather and its effects.
“I feel a deep sense of responsibility to the British people to tell them the truth about what we know about the climate and nature crisis,” Miliband said. “I want this to become an annual statement where it’s an exercise in radical truth-telling about the state of the climate and nature.
“I think only by levelling with people about what we know can we win people’s trust about the need for action.”
The Met Office-led report spells out that with an increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, and an increased period of flood-causing intense rain, the UK is already very much affected by the climate crisis.
Reform has pledged to scrap all net zero policies and subsidies for renewable energy. The Conservatives, who put into law the commitment to reach net zero by 2050 under Theresa May, abandoned the target this year.
Miliband said his statement would be a chance for such voices to be “held to account”. He said: “When I talk about this on Monday, all parties are going to have to decide how they respond. And those who respond by saying: ‘There’s nothing to worry about, we don’t need to do anything’ – frankly it is the worst sort of betrayal of today’s and future generations. They need to be called out, and we are going to call them out. We are not going to let the shared commitment that we need to tackle this crisis disappear by default.”
Miliband (left) with the environment secretary, Steve Reed, during a visit to a floodplain restoration project in Oxfordshire on Friday. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
Miliband is routinely portrayed by political opponents and sections of the media as a climate zealot whose policies are unnecessary and will increase bills. But with polls showing a majority of Britons back current net zero policies, Miliband said this was a dangerous falsehood. “My position is the position of the vast majority of the British people,” he said. “The extremists, the ideologues, are those who would deny the problem or deny the need to act on the problem.
“I think history will judge those people very, very harshly because people will look back at this moment and they will say, you knew you were in this unique generational position, which is you knew enough about the gravity of the problem on the one hand, but on the other hand, it wasn’t too late to do something about it.
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“People will ask who stood up and said yes, we must act, and who tried to deny the problem.”
Amid his warnings on Monday that the “British way of life” as it currently exists is threatened without proper action, Miliband said he also wanted to set out reasons for hope, including a gradually growing global consensus on net zero, and the prospect of the UK being a world leader in green technologies and policies.
He will also take issue with politicians who accept the broad science but argue that the world can cope simply by adapting to a changed climate.
Miliband said while resilience policies were important, relying on them alone was “a complete betrayal, because then you’re essentially running up the down escalator. The problem will get worse and worse. We keep trying to adapt. It will keep costing us more, and we won’t be able to keep up.”
Miliband has faced some reverses, notably Labour’s decision before the election to slash its landmark £28bn-a-year green investment plans by half. Last week he ditched a “zonal pricing” plan to charge electricity users in the south more than those in Scotland.
