The Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE and Ambassador Patricia Espinosa host Global Clean Power roundtable

Former UK Energy Minister the Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE, who was responsible for the UK’s net zero commitment and resigned as an MP last year in protest at then-PM Rishi Sunak’s plans for new oil and gas, has teamed up with former UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Ambassador Patricia Espinosa. Together, they will co-chair the Climate Action Coalition’s Global Clean Power Taskforce to counter recent row backs on climate action.

Following the scoping roundtable that took place March 5, the Taskforce will set out success stories on how renewable energy has brought down costs, improved energy security and transformed economies across the world – in a direct challenge to a narrative that the energy transition is too expensive. It will also set out a pathway of how to phase out fossil fuel use – and how to do this in a way that maintains economic growth and creates jobs. 

The taskforce is part of the fightback against narratives that have claimed climate change is a hoax, or that net zero is a high cost – something that the Climate Change Committee has recently debunked in their report on the UK Government’s Seventh Carbon Budget. It estimates that the net costs of net zero will be around 0.2% of UK GDP per year on average in its Balanced Pathway, with investment upfront leading to net savings during the Seventh Carbon Budget period of 2038-2042.

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