The U.K. is “falling behind” other countries in the fight against climate change and has been “too slow to act” in response to U.S. and EU subsidies for green industries, former Prime Minister Theresa May said.
In a speech on Thursday to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.K. putting its 2050 net zero target into law — a move made under May’s leadership — the former leader said that the energy transition was the “growth opportunity of the century.”
But she warned that foreign subsidies were “reshaping global supply chains before our eyes” and that, without a “clear response,” the U.K. was “putting at risk its reputation as a leader in climate policy.”
May’s words echoed criticism from the government’s own independent climate advisers, who said this week that the U.K. had “lost its clear global leadership position” on climate change.
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan were both “already impacting” the U.K. economy, May said, citing job cuts at car manufacturer Ford, battery manufacturers’ plans to move overseas, and a 10 percent reduction in investment in the U.K. renewables sector.
British ministers have said the U.K. does not need to emulate the U.S. approach to subsidizing green industries, although the government is expected to set out further details of its response to the IRA later this year. Ministers have also promised to outline an “advanced manufacturing” plan in July — a step May said was “encouraging.”
Addressing growing calls from some Conservative politicians for the U.K. to drop its net zero targets amid concerns about the cost to taxpayers, May said the problem was “not that the U.K.’s transition to a green economy is moving too fast.”
“In fact, we have been slow to act in the face of intense competition from abroad,” she said. “Where the UK once led, we are now falling behind.”
The former prime minister was speaking at the launch of a new net zero report by the business association the Aldersgate Group, which she chairs.
In her speech, May cited her personal observations of the effects of climate change while on regular walking holidays in Switzerland. “I have seen how our great glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate,” she said, adding that as prime minister she had been moved by meeting fellow world leaders who warned of the “existential threat” climate change posed to their countries.
“I decided that a major developed country needed to lead — and I thought that it should be Britain,” she added.