Britain’s former chief Brexit negotiator has urged the government to move away from “medieval technology” such as wind power, saying there is no evidence world is facing a “climate emergency”.
Lord Frost – who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet over the administration’s Covid restrictions, net-zero ambitions and tax rises – hit out at a “totally unrealistic approach to climate and energy policy” over the past two decades.
He demanded Britain change tack from ‘managing demand’ for energy and instead put greater emphasis on fracking and nuclear power, as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Frost, who is backing Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race, penned a new essay for the Policy Exchange thinktank, outlining how a new PM could alter the Government’s approach.
“The current evidence does not support the assertion that we are in a climate “emergency””, the Tory peer wrote, as he delivered a fresh swipe at Johnson’s climate policies.
“Rather, the effects of climate change are a problem, one of the many we face, and should be tackled in that pragmatic way rather than by asking us to up-end the whole way our societies work.
“Western society, and indeed world civilisation, depends on copious supplies of energy.
“Yet the prevailing mood is one in which individuals are asked to restrict their use of energy and in which unsatisfactory renewables technology is touted as the best solution to our problems.
“Instead of focusing on technological solutions that enable us to master our environment and get more energy in a more carbon-efficient way — nuclear, CCS, fracking, one day fusion – we have focused on managing demand so we can use medieval technology like wind power.”