Burnham Heads to COP31 Torn Between Cheaper Power and Net Zero

Detailed summary

Andy Burnham will face difficult decisions on energy policy against the competing pressures of sky-high industrial costs and Labour’s net zero commitments. Mauricio Alencar looks…

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Andy Burnham will face difficult decisions on energy policy against the competing pressures of sky-high industrial costs and Labour’s net zero commitments. Mauricio Alencar looks at the trade-offs facing the government before the Prime Minister’s COP 31 visit.

While it didn’t make the headlines, Chancellor John Healey’s Budget speech signalled a huge shift in positioning from previous governments over net zero.

“Today I’m setting a new course on energy: to get UK energy costs down in line with Europe,” Healey said. “From this point, our government priority is first and foremost cheaper energy, with clean power key to achieving this.”

The lines raised eyebrows in Westminster. The test of that new commitment came when the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, approved the gas field project at Jackdaw – apparently against her instincts – and will once again come into focus this week as Andy Burnham takes a double trip on Thursday to the COP 31 climate summit in Turkey before looking to clinch an energy market deal with European leaders in Dublin.

While higher international energy prices caused by the Iran war have raised the stakes of diplomacy across government, policy researchers working under the new Prime Minister are tasked with finding effective ways of easing the cost of living for both households and businesses.

In particular, Healey and Fahnbulleh may struggle to align Labour manifesto commitments on net zero with a renewed push to get costs down – in what could divide the party between environmental zealots and centrists conscious of economic trade-offs.

The energy giant Equinor is awaiting a decision on whether Rosebank’s oil field will get the go-ahead for an opening, with ministers including Fahnbulleh and Healey reportedly sparring over the coherence of a policy to allow more drilling for fossil…

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