Keir Starmer promises to make Britain a 'clean energy superpower' at London energy summit
Fri 25 April 2025
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Speaking at a two-day summit on energy security hosted by the UK Government and the International Energy Agency, the prime minister Keir Starmer made a strong declaration of his support for the net zero agenda, saying that Britain will accelerate the drive to decarbonise rather than slow down, as some have demanded.
The prime minister said: “homegrown clean energy is in the DNA of my government”. Starmer said his Government will "set a path to achieving clean power by 2030".
Starmer’s speech – made in the presence of the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and a senior US energy official – made clear that the prime minister sees renewable energy as core to the UK’s future prosperity and national security.
“We’re paying the price for our over-exposure, over many years, to the rollercoaster of international fossil fuel markets, leaving the economy and therefore people’s household budgets, vulnerable to the whims of dictators like Putin,” he said. “It’s our determination that working people should not be exposed like this any more.”
The prime minister said that the UK’s net zero sectors are growing three times faster than the economy as a whole. He pointed out that they have attracted £43 billion of private investment since last July and now support around 600,000 jobs across the UK.
Speaking at the same event, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that in the UK, at least, the future is low carbon energy. In his speech, Miliband acknowledged China’s supply-chain dominance in the clean energy sector and said the solution was promoting domestic industries.
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