The Top Energy and Climate Issues the Next U.K. Prime Minister Will Have to Tackle

Amid a global scale-back on climate action, the U.K. over the past two years was stepping up its ambition. But with Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing his resignation earlier this week, the future of the country’s climate goals could be in question. 

Under Starmer’s leadership, the government adopted strong climate targets. Earlier this month, the U.K. government announced its seventh carbon budget, which included a new target to cut emissions ‌by around 87% of 1990 levels by 2040. Energy secretary Ed Miliband has also been an ardent supporter of the clean energy transition—setting a target for renewables sources to account for at least 95% of electricity generation by 2030 and pushing to phase-down oil and gas exploration. 

But Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor who won a seat in Parliament last week and is largely expected to succeed Keir Starmer as head of the Labour Party and government, will have to contend with a new “political fracturing” when it comes to climate action in the U.K., says Leo Mercer, policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. 

“There’s been a broad consensus for a long time in the U.K. on climate policy,” says Matthew Lockwood, professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Sussex. “We no longer have that.”

What climate and energy issues will the next U.K. prime minister face?

The next prime minister is expected to inherit a number of issues when it comes to climate and energy policy. 

Most importantly, is finding a way to bring down rising energy prices, which have ballooned following conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. “That's where the political fracturing is, given the increases in gas prices from COVID, Ukraine, the Iran conflict,” says Mercer. “That's linked to the price that consumers and businesses pay for electricity. So one of the key challenges [for] Andy Burnham, or whoever the prime minister is, will be to figure out ways that we can reduce that.” 

Then there’s the ongoing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to increase North Sea oil and gas production. Amid Starmer’s announcement, Trump once again raised the issue of North Sea oil and gas exploration, after first urging the U.K. to expand its exploration in April. That’s despite the country’s current ban, championed by Millbrand—who could be eyeing a top job under a potential Burnham cabinet. 

Another critical issue is the decarbonization of homes across the country, most of which are still reliant on natural gas. “The question is, how can you shift just 26 million homes over to heat pumps?” says Lockwood. “That is a huge investment… and there's not enough public money, unless there's a huge amount of additional borrowing.”

What’s more, as the U.K. faces rising temperatures due to climate change, a new prime minister will have to prioritize climate adaptation to ensure the country is equipped to deal with extreme heat. “We're in our second heat wave of the summer, and we're not even in July, and so the new prime minister will really have to elevate adaptation as a strategic priority against this backdrop,” says Mercer. 

What is Andy Burnham’s stance on climate action?

As mayor of greater Manchester, Burnham set a target for the city to become carbon neutral by 2038, and took measures to get the city on track to meet the goal—including investing in electric buses, helping residents retrofit homes to reduce energy bills and carbon emissions, and launching a partnership with Great British Energy to help back local energy projects across the city. 

In 2022, his office launched the Green Spaces Fund, which invested approximately £3.5 million (over $4.6 million) into more than 120 community projects across the city region to help increase the amount of green space in Greater Manchester, boost biodiversity, and fight climate change. His office also created England’s first local nature recovery strategy to reverse wildlife decline. 

So far, Burnham has not commented much on plans for climate action on a national level. However, he could be interested in pursuing public ownership of resources like energy and water, which experts say could have spillover effects—helping to lower energy costs for consumers and help the government more effectively push for grid infrastructure investments and green energy reforms. “That's an issue which kind of cuts across some of these agendas, though it’s not the same thing as decarbonizing energy, and it's not quite the same thing as immediately bringing down energy costs.”