Essay by Eric Worrall
Climate Change Committee chair Nigel Topping says U-turns damage investor confidence and disrupt businesses.
Weakening UK net zero policy would damage economy, chief climate adviser says
Climate Change Committee chair Nigel Topping says U-turns damage investor confidence and disrupt businesses.
Fiona Harvey Environment editorWed 24 Jun 2026 09.01 AEST
Weakening the UK’s net zero policy would disrupt business and damage the economy, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.
Nigel Topping, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “The U-turns are really damaging to inward investor confidence. If we really want to grow the economy, then investing and getting good at building stuff is essential.”
His intervention comes as the CCC published its latest report to parliament on Wednesday, on progress towards the target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The report found that although the push towards renewable energy has gone well, and more people are switching to electric cars, the take-up of heat pumps has lagged behind severely.
Topping pointed to a recent CBI report finding the net zero economy was worth about £100bn a year to the UK, growing faster than the rest of the economy and producing higher paid jobs. “We’ve got the institutional infrastructure in place since the [2008] Climate Change Act, and real consistency of direction and progress, and we know that consistency is super important for industry in making investment decisions,” he said.
In the wake of Keir Starmer’s resignation, the stance of his likely successor, Andy Burnham, on green issues has come under renewed scrutiny. Burnham has previously supported offshore wind and renewable energy, but some of his advisers have appeared to contrast his bid for “reindustrialisation” with the push for net zero, despite evidence from economists that the two are complementary, rather than opposed.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/24/weakening-net-zero-policy-damage-economy-climate-change-committee
I never cease to be astounded by the profound ignorance of claims that renewables somehow benefit the economy of states which support them. State support for renewables only benefits the recipients of the subsidies. Everyone else has to suffer the cost.
There is a book I read a long time ago, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“, which should be required secondary school reading.
The book provides a very simple but powerful definition of an asset: “An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out of your pocket“.
Oil and gas generate revenue for the government, and help fund government services. Renewables cost subsidy cash, and take money away from other services such as schools, hospitals and pensioners.
There is no point governments supporting commercial ventures which drain money from the public purse.
This isn’t the first time the British Government drove the economy into the wall by attempting to subsidise economic failure. Last time it ended in tears. Continuing to support a catastrophic drain on the public purse and the real economy like renewables will lead to a replay of the 1976 Sterling crisis.
