It’s that time of year again when the party faithful of each of the UK’s political parties trek to a soulless conference centre, pull on a lanyard and indulge in a strange mix of hearty socialising and brutal backstabbing. Every year, I summarise the relevant content of the party leaders’ speeches and pull out some themes. Full disclosure: I’m an active member of the Liberal Democrats, but this is a non-partisan blog.

First up was the Reform UK conference, full of razzmatazz, singing Mayors and self-confidence given their leading position in the polls. Of all the parties they are the most anti-climate action (except when they aren’t). Leader Nigel Farage had the following to say on the topic:

We will make Britain more prosperous again. Our energy policy led by Red Ed [Miliband, Energy Security and Net Zero Minister] is a complete and utter disaster. And it’s all well and good for Kemi Badenoch. You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? It’s all well and good for Kemi Badenoch to say, “Drill, baby drill.” Who was it that put 75% super taxes on North Sea expiration? Who was it that committed net zero to law in this country? They should not be believed. They should not be listened to.

We will scrap ridiculous, harmful, wasteful net zero policies. We will start producing our own oil and gas. We will end the full subsidies for renewable energy which has been going on your bills for years yet no one told you. We will end Britain being the most expensive country in the world for industrial energy. We will bring cheap energy and we will do our utmost to reindustrialise Britain to start making things here that we want and we need.

Nothing unexpected here: the same myths that renewables are expensive (gas is driving our high energy costs) and that the North Sea will be our saviour (it’s been in decline for ages). Interesting that Farage dodges the question of fracking which is party policy, but the Reform-run Council in Lancashire (the most feasible location for fracking) has come out against it.

Next it was Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats, also jubilant at having a record 72 MPs in the House of Commons. The theme of his entire speech was to contrast Lib Dem policies against Reform’s, likening the latter to Donald Trump. Sustainability was scattered through this compare and contrast, making it difficult to summarise, but here are the more significant bits:

[In a list of achievements] A Sunshine Bill, to put solar panels on every new home.

Where we pay Putin for expensive fossil fuels and destroy our beautiful countryside with fracking – while climate change rages on. That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain.

And then there’s our plan to cut energy bills in half by 2035 – making sure everyone feels the benefits of the cheapest forms of electricity: wind and sun. Helping families, pensioners and businesses with energy bills out of control due to gas prices and failed Tory energy policies.

[In a vision for the country] A country that tackles climate change and protects our natural environment.

So if you stitch all this together, it adds up to a commitment to clean energy in particular – and an accurate analysis of the role of gas in high energy bills. Davey was once Energy and Climate Change Minister, so knows his stuff.

Third was Prime Minister Keir Starmer who hasn’t had the most comfortable year and a bit in office. Like Davey, he set up his speech as a compare and contrast to Reform.

[In list of renewal measures] Clean British energy – powering our homes. And the wind farms of South Wales.

[In a list of achievements] Fired up Great British energy.

There are so many opportunities to make a difference. The energy of the future – we’re backing it. Carbon capture here in Merseyside. The Celtic Freeport in South Wales. Off-shore wind turbines – made and built in Humberside. Brilliant scientists in the heart of middle England, developing nuclear fusion.

Starmer was definitely framing clean energy as an engine of growth and innovation. But unlike his agenda 3 years ago, this is part of the growth agenda rather than the main thrust.

Fourth, we had the new energetic leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, who has definitely positioned the party in the watermelon mould (green on the outside and red in the centre). Unfortunately I can’t find a transcript (only the deputy leaders’ speeches are on the party website), and it has to be said, the environment wasn’t front and foremost in the speech, but like Davey and Starmer popped up now and again to attack Reform and Donald Trump. This is probably the most significant section, which sets out Polanski’s position and attacks the Labour Governments’ record:

And when we talk about global issues, it’s clear we also need global solutions. We see that starkly with climate breakdown and with the nature crisis. I’ve been asked dozens and dozens of times in the last few days, in fact, in the last few hours probably, if the Green Party is an environmental movement or a social justice movement.

As if you can’t speak up for our working class or LGBT plus communities at the same time as challenging the fossil fuel industry. So, let’s clear this up. You cannot be an effective environmentalist without talking about the deep inequality in our society. But the climate crisis is also the cost of living crisis and it is hitting our poorest communities hardest. Food inflation is being made worse by climate breakdown. We live in one of the most naturally just had the hottest summer on record.

Now, Labour made a 28 billion pound pledge on green investment, but they ditched it before the election, before they’d even had a sniff of power. Now, many of their politicians had long opposed airport expansion. And now they’re championing it. They promised not to grant new licenses for North Sea oil and gas. And now we hear inexplicably they’re exploring new ways to drill. The one politician in the cabinet who at least half gets the issue, Ed Miliband, have tried to sack him. They have failed us on climate like they have failed us on so many things. We’re now past the point where we can hope they’ll change course. Its politics is one of managed decline and it’s dressed up in this weird national renewal and draped in reform-baiting policy. More of the same from Keir Starmer won’t just fail us now. It will hand this country on a plate to the forces around Nigel Farage. That’s what’s at stake here.

And lastly, Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch gave her speech, which, as expected, shattered the mainstream political consensus on Net Zero (a policy introduced by her predecessor Theresa May, not Ed Miliband as much of the discourse would have it). Here is the significant section:

Energy is growth. It always has been and it always will be. Countries with cheap energy grow faster. Countries with expensive energy decline. Right now, we pay four times what industry in the US does for electricity. The result we are de-industrializing. It’s not just manufacturing that is disappearing. Not just steel, not just chemicals, not just ceramics, not just oil and gas. We are losing our farming industry. We are losing our fishing industry. These are the foundations of a strong economy. And they are going all because we chose a slogan of net zero over a serious strategy for a stronger economy and a better environment.

So I am saying enough. I am reversing this. We will get rid of the climate change act and replace it with a proper strategy that actually works. A strategy which protects the natural environment and the landscapes we love. A strategy that takes sensible steps to tackle climate change without bankrupting ourselves in the process. We will cut bills for families, slash costs for businesses, end the madness that you have to tear out your boiler or disconnect your gas hob. We are going to bring industry and jobs back home. This is real action conference, not slogans. conference. I am not a climate change skeptic, but I am a net zero skeptic.

Britain has already done more than any major country to cut emissions. But we cannot have a law which will make this country poorer while creating jobs abroad and increasing our reliance on hostile states. So we will ax the carbon tax on electricity. We will scrap Labour’s wind and solar levy and instead we will give you our cheap power plan. Through this plan, we will cut bills by £165 for the average family, nearly £5,000 for the average restaurant, and over £1,100 for the average pub. These are savings that can be passed on to consumers. So, conference, I won’t promise you free beer, but I do want you all to have cheaper beer.

So now it is time to put British prosperity first. Give this country the cheap, reliable energy it needs to thrive again. Backing nuclear, but also recognizing that it is pure folly to ban new oil and gas extraction while paying to import resources that Norway takes from the very same basin. So when it comes to the North Sea, we have a very simple policy. Drill our oil and gas now.

This is what I call ‘climate cakeism’ – the bonkers idea that we can tackle climate change without tackling the cause of climate change. It completely ignores the plummeting cost of renewable energy, frames net zero as a sacrifice and risks leaving us in a technological backwater. But, more seriously, it smashes the cross party ambition to make change happen. Politically, it means the Conservatives are fishing in the very small pool of anti-Net Zero votes when Reform have already bagged most of the fish.

Overall, I would say this is the year that climate action became part of the culture wars in the UK. In previous years, all the mainstream party leaders would have a distinct ‘environment’ section in their speeches, ranging from bland lip service to detailed policy proposals. This year, Starmer, Davey and Polanski used the issue of climate change to beat up on Reform (Polanski having a go at Labour too) rather than setting out any significant policy or vision, whereas Badenoch led her party off to la-la land and potential political oblivion. I’m left feeling mildly depressed about the whole thing.