Britain’s rush to Net Zero is being driven by a ‘cult’ mentality and will end up bankrupting the country without saving the planet, one of the country’s leading energy experts has warned.
Professor Gordon Hughes, a University of Edinburgh economist and former energy adviser to the World Bank, says climate policy has turned into a religion - fuelled by moral grandstanding and junk economics.
“In essence, what we’re dealing with is a cult,” he told the podcast GB News Originals.
“The climate community is dominated by true believers who want to expel anyone who disagrees.
His warning comes as COP30 opens in Brazil, where leaders and activists are flying in on private jets - and a new four-lane highway has been bulldozed through the Amazon rainforest to host them.
“It’s theatre, not progress,” he said. “A massive jolly - a trade show for the climate industry.”
Since the 2015 Paris Agreement, global spending on climate measures has topped $14 trillion, he said - yet emissions are at record highs.
“We’ve spent trillions and achieved nothing measurable,” said Prof Hughes.
Professor Hughes spoke to GB News
|GB NEWS / PA
Prof Hughes says British families are paying the price for this “green obsession.”
He has carried out research showing a large proportion of the UK’s skyrocketing energy bills are down to green policies. He said: “About half of what we’re paying for electricity in the UK is down to Net Zero - and it’s going to get worse,” he warned.
He blamed decades of subsidies, grid expansion and costly back-up systems for unreliable wind and solar power.
But he said the government's claim that the upfront costs will fall making energy cheaper over time were “bluntly nonsense.”
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Lucy Johnston spoke to the professor
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He said: “Subsidies and reliability costs don’t vanish once the turbines are up,” he said.
“Wind farms last 15 to 20 years - then you rebuild them, and it’s not getting cheaper.”
Prof Hughes warned that green policies are forcing households into hardship. He said: “More and more people will face the choice - heat, light, or food,” he said.
“It’s a tax on everyone, but it hits the poorest hardest.”
He cited analysis by US energy expert Roger Pielke, showing the pace of decarbonisation hasn’t changed in 30 years.
“Unless we sacrifice our living standards on a huge scale, these targets are just whistling in the wind.”
Mr Hughes dismissed long-range forecasts, such as that carried out by the government backed Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which are used to justify Net Zero as poor modelling - which he described as “garbage in, garbage out.”
“The OBR can’t predict the budget deficit five years ahead - why trust it to forecast climate costs 250 years from now?”
He said such models rely on “wildly uncertain assumptions” that can swing results ten-fold.
And he said even if Britain hit every green target, Hughes believes it would make no meaningful difference to global emissions.
“China produces over 30 percent of emissions, the US 14, India 11 and rising. Britain’s share is about 1 percent,” he said.
He added: “The world’s future will be decided by India and China - not us.”
Apocalyptic climate warnings, he says, are “wildly exaggerated.”
“We were told the planet would burn if we missed 1.5 degrees - that’s been debunked,” he said.
“Even if nothing is done, we might reach just over 2 degrees by 2100 - half of the horror stories."
He added that while there would be adverse consequences of higher temperatures there would also be positives.
“Do we really miss freezing winters? More people die from cold than heatstroke. Plants grow faster with more carbon dioxide.”
Prof Hughes believes Net Zero has become ideology masquerading as morality.
“Politicians buy the story and fix unrealistic targets they have no idea how to reach,” he said.
“It’s politics, not physics.”
He believes countries should adapt to climate change and that Britain must ditch fantasy deadlines and focus on energy that actually works - gas, nuclear and some renewables where viable.
“Provide power that’s reliable and affordable. That’s what people need.”
Developing nations, he added, need prosperity, not lectures.
“Net Zero isn’t a priority for Africa or Asia. People there want food, electricity and jobs. Who are we to say they can’t have them?”
A government spokesperson said: “Climate denialism is a threat to our children and grandchildren.
“Accelerating to net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century and at the heart of our mission to boost growth, create jobs and tackle the climate crisis.
“By making Britain a clean energy superpower, we are taking back control of our energy to protect the British people from volatile fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power.”