Labour will not target net zero emissions by 2030

Labour will not completely decarbonise the power sector by 2030, despite its party conference vote to push for net zero emissions by that date, a member of the shadow cabinet has said.

Barry Gardiner, shadow secretary of state for international trade, told the ‘Today’ programme this morning that Labour is committed to ensuring that 90 per cent of electricity generation is from renewable sources by 2030.

His comments follow newspaper reports that the Labour Party’s manifesto will not include the target, backed by Labour’s conference in September, that the party should set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The watering down of the target follows pressure from the GMB union, whose general secretary Tim Roache attended the meeting on Saturday, which signed off Labour’s manifesto that is due to be launched on Thursday.

Responding to a question about Labour’s emission targets he said: “We will have the power sector 90 per cent powered by renewables by 2030, absolutely in line with achieving on the targets which we have set which is to make sure that well before 2050 we will have achieved the net zero we need.”

“The target we have already committed to is that we will have a net zero economy well before 2050. The key thing is to halve emissions by 2030 in order to have a chance of achieving the global targets we need.”

The comments by Gardiner, who was shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change before taking up his current role, were made in the run up to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the CBI conference where he announced that the party will create a new programme of ‘Climate Apprenticeships’.

The opposition leader said the programme would deliver 320,000 apprenticeships in England during the first term of a Labour government, rising to 886,000 by 2030.

The apprenticeships would be designed to plug skills gaps created by party’s decarbonisation plans in areas such as solar panel and heat pump installation.

Corbyn said the on the job training placements would be funded by diverting 25 per cent of the employers’ existing Apprenticeship Levy contributions, topped up with dividends paid out from Labour’s Inclusive Ownership Funds, into which ten per cent of all shares in large UK companies would be transferred.

Corbyn said: “Climate Apprenticeships will offer training to school leavers and workers looking to change jobs mid-career, creating the engineers, technicians and construction workers we need to transition to a green economy.

“This election is our last chance to tackle the climate emergency. The Tories have failed to invest in our economy, failed to deliver apprenticeships and failed to face up to the climate emergency.”