Nigel Farage Warning: Net Zero Targets 'Exporting' UK Jobs and Manufacturing Overseas

Nigel Farage has a gift for turning policy into pantomime: the finger jab, the raised voice, the prosecutorial stare that suggests the whole country is being hoodwinked in plain sight. This week, he trained that performance on the UK's net zero project—and on Ed Miliband, Labour's Energy Secretary, whom Farage accused of a 'fanatical rush to net zero' that will deepen Britain's 'de-industrialisation'.

'We've been deluding ourselves,' Farage told reporters, insisting Britain is not so much cutting emissions as 'exporting CO2 production, exporting UK manufacturing, exporting well‑paid good jobs.' His argument—delivered with the relish of a man who can smell a culture war—is that stricter rules and higher energy costs push heavy industry abroad, only for Britain to import the same goods from places where coal still dominates.

In plain terms, this is the fight Farage wants: factories versus targets; household bills versus climate ambition; an argument about 'net zero' conducted as a referendum on elites.

Net Zero As Farage's Favourite Punching Bag

Farage's line lands because it's emotionally tidy. It offers a single villain ('net zero'), a single victim (the British worker), and a single fix (tear up the plan). It also flatters a certain nostalgia: the idea that the country could simply fire up the North Sea, cheapen energy, and rebuild the industrial muscle memory of the past.

Reform UK's prescription is exactly that—scrap the 2050 goal, accelerate domestic oil and gas, and promise 're‑industrialisation' by lowering business energy costs. Richard Tice has even mused about merging business, trade, and energy into a kind of super-ministry, which tells you everything about the party's hierarchy of priorities: growth first, carbon later.

But Farage's most potent claim—that the UK is merely outsourcing emissions—sits in an awkward place. Carbon leakage is real in theory, and sometimes in practice. Yet it's also a convenient story for politicians who'd rather sneer at wind turbines than explain how modern power markets work, or why Britain's industrial electricity prices have been so punishing.

Net Zero, The Law, And The Bill Shock

Here's the part that Farage tends to skate past: net zero is not a vibes-based aspiration, it's law. In 2019, the UK amended the Climate Change Act framework so the 2050 target became a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions versus 1990 levels—'net zero'—rather than the old 80% goal. The Climate Change Committee, the statutory watchdog, frames that duty plainly: the 2050 net zero target is a legal commitment, built into the UK's climate governance alongside binding carbon budgets.

Miliband, for his part, isn't shy about leaning into the mission. In an official statement after taking the energy brief, he argued that 'the only way to guarantee our energy security and cut bills permanently is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy,' tying net zero to lower bills, jobs, and energy independence.​

And on bills—this is where Farage's story gets slippery. The great modern shock to UK energy costs wasn't dreamed up by climate technocrats; it was turbocharged by wholesale gas volatility as Russia's invasion of Ukraine tore through European energy markets. Ofgem's own chief executive described how Russia's invasion 'heaped yet more increases and volatility' onto global gas markets, with wholesale prices at times 'over ten times their normal level.'

None of that makes net zero painless. People can support the target in principle and still bristle at the costs and disruptions of getting there. But Farage is betting that irritation can be sharpened into resentment—and that resentment can be converted into votes.

The political wager is obvious. So is the risk: once you turn a legally binding national target into a travelling punchline, you don't just insult your opponents. You invite the country to treat the future like a heckle.