Earlier this week, the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to make drilling for North Sea gas and oil a “cornerstone of Britain’s future”, claiming this was being “strangled” by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s dash for Net Zero. Her speech, made to executives from fossil fuel firms in Aberdeen, seemed to repudiate the green policies of the last Conservative government, which was, of course, responsible for setting Net Zero targets in the first place. It also seemed to align her party with the climate sceptics at Reform UK, who want to scrap renewable energy subsidies and “fast track” new North Sea licences.

Her shadow housing secretary, the past — and perhaps future — leadership hopeful James Cleverly, did not get the memo. For in Returning to Our Roots, a volume of essays published by the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) the day after Badenoch’s speech, he makes arguments that are indistinguishable from Miliband’s: that Britain must “keep pushing and go further, and go faster” in pursuit of decarbonisation, and so “set the pace” for the globe.

According to Cleverly, again echoing his Labour rival, “by investing in green manufacturing, we create jobs, we stimulate growth, and we drive down costs.” Thanks to the Tory government in which he served, the UK hosts four of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel exporters who “do not share our values”. This, he writes, is a “fantastic achievement”.

The CEN is a significant body, boasting numerous former ministers and 49 sitting MPs — almost half the party’s total — and 31 peers as members. It is also funded by organisations such as the European Climate Foundation, long a source of green blob largesse, and firms with interests in renewables, including Octopus Energy, SSE and the wind turbine manufacturer Ørsted. This enables it to employ 14 full-time staff. Also involved is Lord Gove, now Spectator Editor, who wrote the foreword to the book.

That said, Cleverly’s piece, which, after all, recycles what was until recently Tory orthodoxy, is much less extreme than the offerings of some of his fellow contributors. Some of their frankly authoritarian suggestions do not sit well with a party that in other spheres, such as immigration policy, has declared itself opposed to the influence wielded by unelected bodies such as the courts and quangos.

Take, for example, the essay by Tara Singh, David Cameron’s special adviser on the environment before and after he became PM. In her view, Britain’s “climate action” has been hampered by the “realities of electoral cycles and shifting political winds”. The inconvenient fact that green policies may cause energy prices to rise has led to “short-term pain for voters”, and consequent backsliding. The answer, she writes, is to “strengthen our institutional frameworks”.

By this she means giving “more teeth” to the Climate Change Committee — the quango that already wields immense power in shaping energy policy, because it sets the country’s “carbon budgets” and the path to Net Zero. She also says the courts should be handed “greater power” to “force compliance” by ministers to meet emissions goals.

Meanwhile, the Australian Liberal Party (as the country’s conservatives are styled) senator Andrew McLachlan begins his contribution by saying that there is a “longstanding practice” in Westminster-style democracies that “in times of crisis, the workings of parliamentary democracy can be partially or completely suspended”.

While this has usually happened in times of war, McLachlan notes, it also took place during the Covid-19 pandemic. And in his opinion, climate change now poses such a grave threat that “more aggressive government interventions into the lives of its citizens” will have to be imposed. These, he makes clear, would limit personal freedoms and be comparable to Covid lockdowns.

Traditionally, Tory factions avoid publishing policy demands more radical than those pursued by Labour. This paper, however, suggests otherwise. Conventional wisdom holds that if Badenoch is ousted, the leadership will pass to someone closer to Reform, such as Robert Jenrick. Yet many caution against writing off Cleverly, whose previous loss was blamed on botched tactical voting by MPs. Should he prevail this time, the paper implies Reform would find it easy to draw clear blue water between themselves and the Conservatives.

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David Rose is UnHerd‘s Investigations Editor.

DavidRoseUK

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