Miliband accuses Rees-Mogg of ‘flirting’ with climate denial

Jacob Rees-Mogg has said the government will “accelerate” the roll out of renewable technologies with “vim and vigour” after Ed Miliband accused the new business and energy secretary of flirting with climate change denial.

In his first public comments since being appointed by prime minister Liz Truss to head the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Tuesday, Rees-Mogg used the House of Commons energy support debate on Thursday (8 August) to stress the necessity of boosting domestic supply.

He said: “We will invest in renewable energy with vim and vigour, accelerating the deployment of wind, solar and—particularly exciting, I think—hydrogen technologies.”

Rees-Mogg added that the government is “fully committed” to green growth, the green industrial revolution, and net zero by 2050.

The government is hoping to launch a new licensing round in October for extraction of oil and gas, which he said will be needed to achieve these goals.

However, Miliband, shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change, pointed to past comments by Rees Mogg in which he questioned whether taking action to tackle climate change is worthwhile because the benefits will not be seen for “hundreds or thousands of years”.

Miliband said: “This is flirtation with climate denial. Never in the past 20 years have we heard these words from someone in charge of tackling the climate crisis, and we should not normalise it.

“The bipartisan consensus on climate change has been hard won. We have worked across parties over two decades to secure it and there is a heavy responsibility on the business secretary to be part of maintaining that consensus, not destroying it.”

Earlier during the debate, Theresa May said that while proposals to build tidal power plants had been too costly for consumers when she had considered them while prime minister, it could be a “very different picture” now.

She also called for “speeding up the roll-out of low-cost, home-grown renewable technologies” and said the government must consider a “significant” home insulation programme.

In addition, May called for a review of regulations to stop the installation of gas boilers because a ban would be more cost effective than having to rip them out in a few years time to cut emissions.