Amber Rudd cites Margaret Thatcher’s action on global warming as she says tackling climate change cannot be left to just leftwing politicians

The challenge of how best to tackle climate change must not solely be the preserve of leftwing politicians, according to the UK’s energy and climate secretary.

Amber Rudd, who was promoted to secretary of state in May, is to use her first major speech on climate change to argue that the Conservative party’s legacy of action on global warming dates back to Margaret Thatcher.

“It cannot be left to one part of the political spectrum to dictate the solution and some of the loudest voices have approached the issue from a leftwing perspective. So I can understand the suspicion of those who see climate action as some sort of cover for anti-growth, anti-capitalist, proto-socialism,” she is expected to say at Aviva headquarters in London on Friday.



Leftwing advocates of climate action such as the author Naomi Klein have argued that capitalism is one of the main obstacles to serious carbon emission cuts and widespread deployment of renewable energy.

Rudd’s speech comes at the end of a week when her department cut solar power subsidies and killed off the UK’s flagship scheme for making homes more energy efficient. Friends of the Earth said the speech amounted to “window dressing” for Treasury attacks on environmental policies and accused her of “grotesque hypocrisy”.

Labour’s shadow energy secretary, Caroline Flint, warned that Rudd risked fracturing the UK’s political consensus on climate change with such language.

Rudd is to cite Thatcher’s speech on the dangers of global warming in 1990, and will say: “this is equally an issue for those of us [on the right] who believe a sustainable free-market delivers the best results for hard-working families.”



Failing to stop dangerous levels of warming would hurt the economy, she argues. “The economic impact of unchecked climate change would be profound. Lower growth, higher prices, a lower quality of life. So I see climate action as a vital safety net for our families and business. Protecting our homes, our livelihoods, our prosperity. It is the ultimate insurance policy.”

Of the Paris climate summit at the end of the year, where nearly 200 countries hope to agree on a UN-brokered deal on carbon cuts post-2020, Rudd will say in her speech: “The UK is lined up with the progressive countries of the world on this. We want a strong, ambitious, rules-based agreement that makes the shift to a clean global economy irreversible. Why? Because that is the best way to convince the private sector and investors we mean business.”

The prime minister also moved to defend the government’s track record on the environment, after criticism from green groups that the solar subsidy cuts would take Britain “back to the dark ages”.

“I believe we’ve been the greenest government ever and we’ve made great pledges in the last parliament which we’ve kept – like the world’s first green investment bank, which is spending billions of pounds of investing in green energy,” David Cameron told the Royal Welsh Show on Thursday.

He added: “We have seen a massive increase in investments in renewable energies ... we are now close to having 10% of our electricity needs being met by onshore wind. We have the world’s largest off shore wind market.”

The government is ending onshore windfarm subsidies and in the process of selling off the green investment bank.

Craig Bennett, chief executive at Friends of the Earth, said: “The government’s credibility on tackling climate change is hanging in tatters. Amber Rudd appears to have been wheeled out to say a few warm word on tackling climate change as window dressing for a vicious Treasury assault on the environment.”

Flint said: “Amber Rudd needs to urgently clarify what she means. The Climate Change Act was passed with cross party support in 2008, and statements like this undermine that crucial consensus.

“This rounds off a week in which the government have put jobs and investment at risk in clean energy and energy efficiency. David Cameron’s claims that this is the greenest government ever are increasingly laughable.”