Tory pressure groups in parliament who support and oppose the government's Net Zero targets are both increasing their support.
Two Conservative pressure groups within Parliament have announced that they have increased their support among Tory MPs as an internal struggle over the government’s Net Zero policies intensifies.
Half of all Conservative Party backbenchers are now members of the Conservative Environment Network, with Jeremy Hunt being the latest MP to join, bringing the total to 150 according to The Guardian. This includes 133 backbench Tory MPs, over half of the party’s backbenchers.
But their opponents within the Conservatives, the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG), also claim to have increased its membership. Craig Mackinlay MP, the group’s leader, said that 58 MPs had signed up, but did not release a list.
A letter from the group in January was signed by 18 MPs, and Mackinlay said in an email that “The reality when trying to get signatures to a letter is that time is often against the effort in order to hit media deadlines and we’re all busy people and so many who would sign just missed the opportunity.”
The NZSG has links to Net Zero Watch, the Tufton Street think tank run by the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Nigel Farage has also recently launched his own campaign calling for a referendum on the government’s Net Zero policies.
Green policies have broad support, both across the British public and also within the Conservative Party. People affiliated to the Conservative Environment Network who I talked to were keen to play down the idea of a war within the Tories between environmentalists and anti-Net Zero lobbyists, saying that most MPs supported the government’s policies.
The CEN is certainly a more professional operation than the NZSG. They have their own podcast and wealthy backers, like Chair Ben Goldsmith, CEO of Menhaden Capital and brother of Zack Goldsmith.
On the CEN podcast in November 2021, former minister Andrea Leadsom told the host that, “when you look at the press or social media, you see undue weight given to the few who are still real climate change sceptics or real non-environmentalists. But actually across the broad range of party members I come across and colleagues in Parliament we are all committed to the Net Zero strategy.”
While Net Zero Watch say they do not “accept gifts from either energy companies or anyone with a significant interest in an energy company”, Chairman Neil Record also chairs the BP-funded Institute of Economic Affairs, which also boasts Tory donor and Russian oligarch Alexander Temerko as a board member. Their total income for 2020 was £374,333. Unsurprisingly, the IEA is also campaigning against Net Zero targets.
Net Zero Watch’s parent organisation, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), says it is “funded entirely by voluntary donations from our Members and Supporters.” However, it does not reveal its funding sources, and a 2011 Guardian article suggested that less than 2% of its funding came from membership fees.
Dr Benny Peiser, of both the GWPF and Net Zero Watch recently spoke at an event on Net Zero hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which receives funding from fossil fuel interests including Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
Like Net Zero Watch, CEN also has a lobby group within parliament, the Net Zero Support Group (NZSP). Politico reported that this group was set up by former minister Chris Skidmore to defend the government’s Net Zero policies, and that one Tory MP told them that the group was an invention of government whips, and that “people will join it because they want to be a minister.”
As the cost of living crisis bites, however, climate sceptic groups like Net Zero Watch are increasingly trying to blame green policies for rising costs on fuel bills.
The Guardian reported last weekend that Boris Johnson planned to hold talks with cabinet ministers this week over the government’s energy plans, with disputes over onshore wind and the future of fracking. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be resisting pressure from Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to increase spending on new renewable and nuclear energy projects.
However, Kwarteng himself, in a response to a parliamentary question on March 29, ruled out increasing taxes on energy companies to offset the rise in energy bills to consumers, saying “We believe a windfall tax in the current situation would be a tax on jobs, it would destroy investment and it would add to the uncertainty in oil markets. It would be completely the wrong message to send to investors.”
Although CEN’s policy platform advocates mostly market based approaches, one CEN ambassador LFF talked to said that he was “always cautious of a purely market-led approach to these things. I think that might have worked in the Thatcher era, but what Covid’s shown is that when we do intervene in sectors, we can encourage real growth. We have to now go hell for leather on renewables, but what that needs to mean is real benefit to people in the North through jobs.”
While Net Zero Watch propose their ‘radical plan to end the energy crisis’ by creating more natural gas, some younger, greener Tories are considering direct government intervention to create more renewable energy and to reallocate resources away from London. It has to be hoped that the CEN win the argument against their anti-Net Zero colleagues.
John Lubbock leads on the Right-Watch project at Left Foot Forward
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