By bizn_fun 
The cost of household energy bills has become a major political battleground, with the Conservatives and Reform UK blaming net-zero policies for higher prices.
The Conservatives have said they would scrap the Climate Change Act, which legally requires the UK government to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, as well as ditch carbon taxes on electricity generation and cut a funding scheme for renewables.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said her party’s plans would cut electricity bills for everyone by 20%.
“[The public] care about climate change but what I don’t think they are signing up for is much higher bills and jobs being lost to countries abroad,” she told the BBC.
In an interview with the same programme, Green Party leader Zack Polanski argued nationalising energy companies would help cut costs for customers.
His party has also proposed a new tax on carbon emissions to drive fossil fuels out of the economy and raise money to invest in the green transition.
Challenged over whether businesses would simply pass on these costs to customers, Polanski rejected this and said the tax would be “vital for tackling the climate crisis”.
“What we need to be doing is finding other ways to support particularly small and local businesses… We know the big corporations are destroying our environment, our democracy and our communities,” he said.
“They can make a profit, sure, but this isn’t about squeezing out every single profit they can make.”