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UK energy secretary says bill cuts are key to climate support
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh told BBC Panorama that affordability is her overriding aim and that cheaper bills are needed to keep public support for climate action.
- New headline Was: “Action on energy costs is my overriding aim, says Fahnbulleh”
- Our desk filed its story
UK Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said affordability is her overriding objective and that cutting household bills is needed to keep public support for climate policy, in a BBC Panorama interview aired Monday1.
The interview was recorded last week1. She said the government's drive for cleaner power would help lower energy bills over the long term, while conceding that efforts to reduce carbon emissions are currently under pressure after years of rising prices1.
Asked what her main task was, Fahnbulleh said, "With the cost of living biting, affordability is my overriding objective, without a doubt"1.
She argued that greener electricity is one route to affordability and that homegrown renewables and nuclear would, over time, reduce bills by lessening dependence on global fossil-fuel markets1.
She said people want to blame net zero for high costs, which she does not accept, and that maintaining consent requires showing the climate transition is good for household budgets1.
BBC reported that ministers are weighing how to respond to a predicted January surge in energy prices, expected to be the biggest rise in bills for four years, and that UK households currently pay one of the highest electricity rates in Europe1. It attributed higher bills both to subsidies and to gas prices driven up by international conflicts1.
Reform UK and the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch have criticized public subsidy schemes for renewable electricity, arguing the clean-energy drive has raised consumer costs, BBC said1.
Fahnbulleh said reducing carbon emissions remains a priority and pointed to this summer's droughts as evidence of the need to tackle warming, while calling Labour's target for 95% of electricity from clean sources by 2030 a stretch1. BBC also noted reports Monday that the government is considering weakening the electric-vehicle mandate that would phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, as ministers head to COP311.