Sir Keir Starmer has promised not to lecture to people about how to cut their carbon carbon footprints as individual action “will not in itself solve this problem”.
The Labour leader said he is “not in the business of telling people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their individual lives”.
And he said instead that Britain under Labour will “make a massive transition” away from fossil fuels and invest in wind, solar and nuclear power.
“Of course, we can all do individual things in our lives, but I don’t think it’s right to say that that in itself will solve this problem,” Sir Keir told BBC News.
Pressed on what he does to cut his own carbon footprint, the Labour leader said he does not eat meat.
Speaking from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Sir Keir said: “I’m not trying to enforce on other people what they should or should not do. This is not about a government saying to individuals ‘you can do this, you can’t do that’.
“It’s about the government saying it’s our responsibility to take the big decisions about this transition.”
Sir Keir was also pressed on Labour’s promised £28billion Green Prosperity Plan after reports suggested the party was “unlikely” to meet the pledge.
The BBC last week said the plan could be scaled back again as Labour instead focuses on meeting the party’s fiscal rules.
Labour had originally promised in 2021 to invest £28 billion-a-year until 2030 in green projects if it came to power. But in June shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figure would instead be a target to work towards in the second half of a first parliament.
The BBC said that a senior source in Sir Keir Starmer’s office suggested the £28 billion figure may not be reached at all due to the current state of the public finances.
A Labour party spokesman denied the reports and on Saturday Sir Keir said he is “absolutely determined” to fulfil the promise.
Sir Keir insisted that one of his missions in government will be for Britain to use one hundred percent clean power by 2030, “which will require investment”.
He added: “That £28billion will be ramped up, probably in the second half of the parliament.
“I say ramped up because there’ll be money coming from the start, but the money is towards a purpose and outcome.
“And the outcome that we’re driving at here is the transition so that for years and years to come, millions of people up and down the country will have cheaper bills, because we can’t go on like this.”
