A new Tory faction is ‘scrutinising’ net zero – with tactics learned from Brexit

theguardian.com:

In the final days of Theresa May’s premiership, the UK’s net-zero target, like the landmark 2008 Climate Change Act before it, entered the statute book with hardly any resistance.

Well-founded complaints were made that it did not match the pace and scale required to address climate breakdown, but, as in 2008, across parliament there appeared to be an underlying consensus that “something had to be done”. Outright climate-change denial was kept to a faint background hum.

Now, however, this consensus seems to be falling apart. Behind the scenes, a faction of Tory MPs is manoeuvring, Brexit-style, to systematically undermine the government’s stated climate efforts. With the Conservative party in meltdown, it looks like Britain’s net-zero policy is becoming just another political football to be kicked around the government backbenches.

Make no mistake, the UK government’s current stance on the climate falls gravely short of what’s needed. The “something” that must be done has always been a matter of contentious debate, with activists and experts despairing at Tory inadequacy. The Johnson government is hailed as world-leading in setting targets, but accused of only paying lip service to – rather than ensuring real policy dividends for – decarbonisation efforts.

But the newly formed Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) is launching an attack from the other end of the political spectrum. It reportedly has around 18 members in the Commons and is being run by dissident MPs Steve Baker and Craig Mackinlay, a Tory MP who was once the deputy leader of Ukip.

This is hardly the first time that small Tory factions have organised to upend a whole political agenda. The NZSG appears to be modelled on the European Research Group – also chaired by