Izzy Lepone 15 July 2025

Farage: ‘Virtue-signalling’ climate targets must go

Farage: ‘Virtue-signalling’ climate targets must go image
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party. © Sean Aidan Calderbank / Shutterstock.com.

Nigel Farage has ordered Reform UK council leaders to give up on what he calls ‘virtue-signalling’ net zero targets.

Labelling net zero initiatives as costly and ‘massive diversions of time’, the Reform Party leader reportedly said the targets ‘need to be scrapped’.

‘It’s not the job of county councils to deal with global issues, and it wouldn’t make any difference at all if they were scrapped’, he said.

Whilst many local authorities are striving to achieve net zero by 2030, Mr Farage has urged the 10 Reform-controlled councils to renounce their pledges.

The injunction comes despite seven of the 10 Reform-run councils having previous climate emergency policies in place, including Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Kent County Councils.

Last month, the campaign group Climate Emergency UK warned that local government’s net zero agenda was stalling.

To learn more about Reform UK, check out: Reform UK: What Britain’s fastest rising party stands for and Reform UK’s ‘Doge’ witch-hunts will achieve little.

LocalGov Weekly Round Up image

LocalGov Weekly Round Up

William Eichler, editor of LocalGov.co.uk, reflects on the stories that captured readers’ attention this week.
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