A useful enemy? Why Tories and Reform are calling net zero policy into question

Reform’s Richard Tice speaks enthusiastically of the need to plant more trees and adapt to the climate crisis, even though he casts doubt on the science. Photograph: Jack Jango/Alamy

Just as Labour forges ahead with net zero policies, the chief energy spokespeople of the UK’s two main rightwing opposition parties are openly questioning long-settled climate science, in what seems like a mission to discredit and confuse the whole issue.

It is a development that would have been unthinkable just three years ago, when the four-decade-long cross-party consensus on the climate still held firm. Even up to last year’s general election, every mainland party other than Reform UK campaigned on a commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.