For the first time in years, the UK is governed by a party that wants to accelerate climate action, rather than reverse it.
Labour stood on a defiantly pro-net zero ticket at the 4 July general election, and scored a clear victory. Over the course of the six week campaign, Labour won the argument against the Conservatives and Reform UK โ two parties that, as DeSmog revealed, had been given millions in donations by climate deniers and fossil fuel interests.
The next question is whether the consensus will hold. The fossil fuel industry and its allies in Westminster and Fleet Street are exerting pressure on Labourโs green agenda in the hope that it will crumble.
Some of their strategies are subtle: lobbying and schmoozing politicians to adopt the industryโs favoured climate solutions, such as hydrogen, and carbon capture (CCS).
Others are less so: producing a barrage of inflammatory content about Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband, as has been done by the likes of The Telegraph and GB News, in order to discredit his clean energy policies.
Labour will need to be resolute in the face of this well-funded operation to meet its ambitious climate targets.
The party may even need to confront Donald Trump, a man who has pledged to โdrill baby drillโ for more planet-boiling, hurricane-inducing fossil fuels.
On both sides of the Atlantic, a coordinated nexus of dark money and libertarian think tanks have advocated against climate action and environmental regulation for decades. The second coming of Trump, and his special relationship with Nigel Farage, will embolden these groups and their attempts to export their radical Project 2025 agenda across the globe.
Just this week, one of Americaโs most notorious climate science denial groups, the Heartland Institute, announced that it would be following Farageโs advice by setting up shop in the UK. Trump claims to be an isolationist, but his tentacles are already spreading across the Western world.ย
As this form of pro-pollution populism gains traction, it seems likely that Viktor Orbanโs Hungary will remain an important outpost for international climate denial.
Throughout 2024, and in particular in the run-up to the EU elections in June, Hungarian think tanks (most notably the oil-funded Mathias Corvinus Collegium) acted as breeding grounds for anti-climate narratives based on concerns over new environmental rules imposed on farmers.
The emergence of a powerful pro-farming lobby opposed to green reforms in the EU โ and propelled by the far-right โ should serve as a prescient warning to Labour. This is especially the case given the recent protests against changes to farmersโ inheritance tax in the UK, which have been co-opted by conspiracy theorists.
With populism once again surging at home and abroad, Labour is faced with opportunities and threats. It has a unique chance to show green leadership and prove that clean energy can help not only to save us from extreme weather, but also help to bring down the cost of living and create jobs.
However, if Labour doesnโt deliver, a well-funded climate denial apparatus will be poised to scupper the UKโs net zero ambitions and follow Trumpโs America out of the Paris Agreement.
This next year will be crucial, and DeSmog will be dedicated to exposing the malign influence of those who are conspiring to scupper global climate action. We will be holding Labour to account, tracking the lobbyists whispering into the ear of power, and exposing the dark money groups that are warping the debate on everything from fossil fuels to food and farming.
If you would like to support our work, please donate here. Thank you for reading โ we wish you all a very merry festive season, and will see you again in 2025.
