Kemi Badenoch has picked the wrong fight in net zero - Jayne Dowle

Then in 2019, under bike-riding Conservative PM Boris Johnson, who was obsessed with the idea, the UK became the first G7 country to legislate to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Whether this is achievable or not remains to be seen, but again, we’ve set the high bar.

There are many climate change naysayers, but our official government stance on how changing weather patterns, climbing temperatures and polluting emissions impact upon the planet has also been a rare example of political consensus.

The Conservatives, starting with Margaret Thatcher tackling fossil fuels in the 1980s – and we all know what she did to the coal-mining industry in our region – and Labour, with the Climate Change Act coming in under Gordon Brown, may have fallen out over pretty much everything else, but until now have held a firm collegiate line.

Conservative former prime minister Theresa May, now Baroness May of Maidenhead, is incandescent, accusing her successor of wanting to upend “17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community”. Such a move would be “a catastrophic mistake”, Baroness May warned.

And aren’t the Tories supposed to be the party of business? Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the CBI, is puzzled, to say the least: “Scrapping the Climate Change Act would be a backwards step in achieving our shared objectives of reaching economic growth, boosting energy security, protecting our environment and making life healthier for future generations.”

In fact, it’s hard to find anyone who thinks that undoing the Climate Change Act and reversing the UK’s sterling record towards achieving zero emissions would be a good idea.

What is Badenoch thinking you might well ask? And why this, and why now? Some political commentators point to the approaching date of November 2, when a no-confidence vote in her leadership becomes permissible. If she needs a big idea to impress the party and voters, on the evidence so far, she’s picked the wrong one.

Badenoch says that she is a “net-zero sceptic” but “not a climate change sceptic”, a differential that most casual observers would find difficult to grasp. She argues that the current legislation is “just random targets with no plans forcing us to do stupid things in order to meet them”, which hardly displays the highest level of convincing rhetoric. The Tories would replace the legislation with a strategy for “cheap and reliable” energy, apparently, but anyone can see that tackling climate change and “cheap and reliable” energy need not be mutually exclusive.

Whilst many of us find the Labour government’s cack-handed approach to cleaner energy, with energy companies recently turning off wind turbines because they’re overloading the grid, for example, frustrating, this move from the Conservative leader is irresponsible at best.

Or a race to the bottom for the populist vote, as Reform UK threatens to blow the Conservatives out of the water at the next General Election? It’s true that many of our communities have fought in vain against the arrival of wind turbines. And it’s tragic to see ranks of solar panels marching across productive farmland.

However, the Tories would do far better to engage with these demanding issues, putting thought and consideration into achieving a balance between government policies and public concern.

Or is Badenoch aiming to make a point as a world stateswoman? It won’t make Trump think any better of her, for a start. He really doesn’t care about what the UK does about carbon emissions. If this is global grand-standing it’s pointless, and deeply schismatic.

But perhaps most worrying of all for this putative party of government, Badenoch’s tough stance on climate change betrays her lack of surefootedness with the electorate.

If she thought it would be a cheap hit, she should have done her research first. Does she imagine an ignorant country that despite living through extreme weather events such as deadly high summer temperatures, wildfires and horrific floods, still believes that there is nothing wrong with the climate?