Credentials

Background

Kemi Badenoch has been the leader of the Conservative Party since November 3, 2024, and has been a Conservative MP since 2017.³

She served as Secretary of State Business and Trade between February and July 2022, Secretary of State for International Trade between September 2022 and February 2023, and was also a Minister for Women and Equalities from October 2022 to July 2024.⁴

Before her political career, Badenoch worked as a software engineer⁵ and is the former digital director of The Spectator magazine.⁶

Badenoch has repeatedly suggested that the UK’s net zero targets would “bankrupt the country”, has boasted of standing up to “the green lobby” while in government, and has called Labour’s ban on new North Sea oil and gas licences “foolish”.⁷

Badenoch’s Conservative leadership campaign was part-financed and given office space by Neil Record, the director of UK climate denial campaign group Net Zero Watch, which is closely linked to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).⁸ Her manifesto attacked the “radical environmental policies” previously introduced by the Conservative Party.

Stance on Climate Change

October 2, 2024

Speaking at the 2024 Conservative Party conference, Badenoch described herself as a “net zero sceptic” but “not a climate change sceptic.” She added that net zero is “making energy more expensive and hurting our economy.”⁹

September 30, 2023

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Badenoch urged over caution the potential economic consequences of the net zero target, saying the UK should not “bankrupt” itself to reach net zero.¹⁰

She said:

“We still have the ambition to get to net zero by 2050, but we have to remember that we are only 1 percent of world emissions. If we bankrupt ourselves trying to get there, we won’t achieve net zero. We will also be in a worse position in terms of tackling climate change.”

The UK had contributed 4.45 percent of global cumulative emissions by 2022, according to OurWorldinData.¹¹

July 9, 2022

In an interview with The Telegraph, Badenoch described the net zero by 2050 target as “arbitrary” and “ill thought-through”, adding that there was “a better way of going about these things”. Badenoch did not provide any further details on what her vision of a “better way” would be.¹²

She said:

“I think that it was wrong of us to set a target without having a clear plan of the cost and knowing what it would entail. Setting an arbitrary target like that is the wrong way to go. I am not someone who doesn’t believe in climate change. I can see. But there is a better way of going about these things.”

Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost climate science body, have said that without “immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors” limiting global heating to 1.5C is beyond reach.

Restricting global temperatures to this threshold – the target agreed as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement – would prevent the worst and most irreversible effects of climate change, but the window to do so is rapidly diminishing.

Key Quotes

January 31, 2024

After a court ruled in Scotland that the approval granted for exploration of the Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea oil and gas fields was unlawful, Badenoch took to X to condemn the decision.¹³

“This ruling is an act of self-harm”, she wrote. “Yet more lawfare killing economic growth”.

She went on to criticise Labour for “banging on about growth” while being “too scared to fight for the oil and gas fields that deliver energy security and provide jobs for thousands of people”, and Keir Starmer for failing to “get serious” and “caving to […] the green lobby”.

July 19, 2022

In an appearance on TalkTV ahead of the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Badenoch said “there are scenarios” in which she would delay the UK’s 2050 net zero target, calling it “a bit of a red herring.”¹⁴ She criticised the 2050 target, arguing:

“Practically none of us will still be here for us to be held accountable for it […] what would happen if we moved it to 2060 or 2070? We’re not going to be here. Let’s be realistic.”

She added that she supported the goal of tackling climate change “but we have to do it in a way that doesn’t bankrupt our economy.”

Key Actions

August 6, 2024

DeSmog revealed that Kemi Badenoch had accepted £10,000 from House of Lords member Baroness Moyo, an economist and banker who has served on Chevron’s board since 2016 and holds shares worth more than £100,000 in the company.¹⁵

Baroness Moyo became a peer in November 2022 having been nominated by the then prime minister Boris Johnson. Her House of Lords profile says that she sat as a Tory peer until July 2024 but is now non-affiliated.

November 29, 2024

DeSmog revealed that Kemi Badenoch’s head of policy, Victoria Hewson, called net zero by 2050 a “massive own goal” in a piece written for the Institute of Economic Affairs in 2022, a group which has received funding from BP every year between 1967-2018.¹⁶

November 5, 2024

Badenoch appointed her shadow cabinet including re-appointing former Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero Claire Coutinho, who had taken donations from Michael Hintze, a past funder of the Global Warming Policy Foundation climate science denial group.¹⁷

October 3, 2024

A DeSmog report revealed that a policy document circulated by Kemi Badenoch’s team during the 2024 Conservative Party conference borrowed evidence from an American climate denial think tank Unleash Prosperity, which has compared a belief in climate change to the belief that the earth is flat.¹⁸

The evidence was used to claim that net zero policies are only supported by high-earning graduates living in cities.

Badenoch’s document, titled “Conservatism in Crisis”, also praised the U.S’s shale and oil boom and asked why other countries had not followed suit.

August 19, 2024

DeSmog revealed that Kemi Badenoch had accepted £10,000 from Neil Record, director of the Net Zero Watch, a think tank that acts as the campaign arm of the UK’s premier climate denial think tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.¹⁹

Badenoch’s campaign has also operated from Record’s house.

Record is also lifetime president of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank that received funding from oil giant BP every year from 1967 to at least 2018. In July 2024, he wrote that achieving net zero by 2050 “will restrict our freedom, and is likely to be eye-wateringly expensive”.

April 4, 2023

A report from openDemocracy showed that Badenoch had dined with members of the climate denial group the American Enterprise Institute while on an official visit to the U.S. in November 2022.²⁰

During the same official visit, Badenoch spoke at an event organised by the Cato Institute, an American climate denial think tank founded by Charles Koch.

Affiliations

The Conservative Party – Badenoch has been a Conservative MP since 2017.²¹

X – @KemiBadenoch
LinkedIn – Kemi Badenoch
Instagram – Kemibadenoch

Resources

1
“Sussex alumna Kemi Badenoch elected as Leader of the Opposition,” University of Sussex, November 4, 2024. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/C9ycd
2
“Kemi Badenoch,” University of Birkbeck. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/3NL9a
3
“Parliamentary Career: Kemi Badenoch,” UK Parliament. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/FlHvq
4
“Parliamentary Career: Kemi Badenoch,” UK Parliament. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/FlHvq
5
Maggie Pagano. “A View from the Top: Kemi Badenoch, the ‘Nigerian oil boom baby’ and Tory MP who sees Brexit as a golden opportunity,” The Independent, August 31, 2017. Archived December 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.is/489d7
6
“Kemi Badenoch (Past staff),” London Assembly. Archived September 29, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/U5Zsv
7
Adam Barnett. “Kemi Badenoch’s views on climate change,” DeSmog, November 4, 2024.
8
Adam Barnett and Sam Bright. “Kemi Badenoch Accepts £10,000 From Chair of Tufton Street Climate Denial Group,” DeSmog, August 19, 2024.
9
Adam Barnett. “Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch’s Views on Climate Change,” DeSmog, November 4, 2024.
10
Caroline Wheeler. “Kemi Badenoch: We can’t bankrupt ourselves getting to net zero,” The Times, September 30, 2023. Archived August 21, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/eqgfW
11
Hannah Ritchie. “Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions?,” OurWorldinData.org. Archived October 8, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/mMedM
12
Edward Malnick. “Kemi Badenoch: ‘My late father taught me about responsibility’,” The Telegraph, July 9, 2022. Archived June 15, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/3m68i
13
Kemi Badenoch. “This ruling is an act of self-harm. Yet more lawfare killing economic growth,” Post by @KemiBadenoch, January 30, 2024. Retrieved from x.com. Archived .png on file at Desmog.
14
Helena Horton. “Kemi Badenoch moves away from net zero by 2050, in double climate U-turn,” The Guardian, July 19, 2022. Archived October 1, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/p6HvM
15
Sam Bright, “‘Net Zero Sceptic’ Kemi Badenoch Accepted £10,000 from Chevron Director,” DeSmog, December 13, 2024.
16
Adam Barnett. “Kemi Badenoch’s Policy Chief Attacked Net Zero Climate Target,” DeSmog, November 29, 2024.
17
Adam Bienkov. “Kemi Badenoch and Shadow Net Zero Secretary Funded by Backers of Tufton Street Climate Science Denial Group,” Byline Times, November 5, 2024. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/hMCJ4
18
Adam Bychawski. “Kemi Badenoch Manifesto Uses Climate Denial Group Research to Attack Net Zero,” DeSmog, October 3, 2024.
19
Adam Barnett and Sam Bright. “Kemi Badenoch Accepts £10,000 From Chair of Tufton Street Climate Denial Group,” DeSmog, August 19, 2024.
20
Adam Bychawski. “Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch dined with anti-climate lobbyists in US,” OpenDemocracy, April 4, 2023. Archived January 14, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/eWzHo
21
“Parliamentary Career: Kemi Badenoch,” UK Parliament. Archived November 5, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/FlHvq

DeSmog

DeSmog

Kemi Badenoch

Credentials

Background

Stance on Climate Change

Key Quotes

Key Actions

Affiliations

Resources

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Michael Hintze

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Credentials

Background

Stance on Climate Change

Key Quotes

Key Actions

Affiliations

Social Media

Resources

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