Labour must improve climate actions in an interesting week in the debate about climate change. On Wednesday 30 April UK’s climate watchdog, the Climate Change Committee, reported that the government was putting people, the economy and the environment in increasing peril by failing to act on the effects of the climate crisis.
Later that day the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) published a report criticising the government’s net zero strategy. This was seen by some as giving a boost to climate sceptics and the Conservative and Reform parties on the eve of the local elections.
The Guardian reported that Lady Brown, chair of the adaptation subgroup of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the statutory adviser to government, said: “We are seeing no change in activity from the new government, despite the fact that … it’s clear to the public that the current approach just isn’t working. The country is at risk, people are at risk, and there is not enough being done.”
The introduction to the committee’s executive summary states that: ‘The increasing impacts of climate change are clear, both globally and in the UK. Adaptation is needed now to ensure that the UK is prepared for today’s extreme weather as well as the rapidly increasing severity of future risks. The costs of these impacts are already being felt, and the risks will continue to grow even if international targets to limit global warming are met. Action is needed now whilst we still have the opportunity to address these risks in a way that is both cost-effective and timely. This report assesses the extent to which the UK’s Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) and its implementation are preparing the UK for climate change. It is the Committee’s first statutory progress report on NAP3 and builds on our initial Independent Assessment of the Third National Adaptation Programme, published in March 2024. It is also the Committee’s first statutory progress report on NAP3 for the new UK Government’
The former prime minister wrote in the foreword for a report from the TBI: “In developed countries, voters feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal.”
The intervention of the Blair Institute provoked anger from the government and climate experts and questions have also been asked about the links the institute has with petro states, oil and gas companies.
Patrick Galey, the head of fossil fuel investigations at the nongovernmental organisation Global Witness, said: “Blair’s well-documented links to petro states and oil and gas companies ought to alone be enough to disqualify this man as an independent and reliable arbiter of what’s possible or common sense in the energy transition.”
Subsequently Tony Blair came out in support of the government’s stating that their policy was “the right one”.
A YouGov opinion poll for Earth Day on 22 April: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52033-earth-day-2025-where-do-britons-stand-on-climate-change found that climate change is accepted as fact in Britain today, with 84% believing that the climate is changing, and 4% believing that the climate is not. It also showed that 62% believe that concerns about the effects of climate change have not been exaggerated, with 23% feeling that they have. However, the poll also showed an increase in public scepticism towards climate policy.
Just what impacts the TBI report, subsequent media coverage and the outcome of this week’s local elections will have on the public and political debates about the climate emergency remain to be seen.