Burnham Recommits to Net Zero 2050 With £30m 'People's Power' Fund
The Prime Minister planted his climate flag: “I am determined that we meet the commitment on which Labour was elected and reach net zero by 2050. I want Britain to believe in itself again.” Nearly £30m will seed community-owned solar, wind and hydro under a “People’s Power” banner — positioned squarely against Kemi Badenoch’s charge that the target is “a political fiction bankrupting the country”, and against Reform. Decisions on the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields wait until after the 8 October by-election.
The recommitment is brave arithmetic in a war year: energy bills are climbing on $100 oil and record gas, and every populist in Europe is running against climate targets as luxury beliefs — Mr Burnham’s answer is to fuse net zero with his ownership politics, making the transition something communities hold shares in rather than something Whitehall imposes. The £30m is seed money, not policy; the real tells are the deferred North Sea decisions, where approval would enrage his coalition and refusal would gift Reform an energy-security attack amid a supply war. Deferring both past a by-election concedes their potency. Watch the Jackdaw and Rosebank rulings when they come — they, not the fund, will define whether this government’s climate politics survive contact with the war.