Ed Miliband is a target for the political right; not because he’s irrelevant, but because he’s effective. The bacon sandwich gags and “Red Ed” jokes mask a deeper unease: that Mr Miliband, with his dogged insistence on science, public investment and long-term thinking, is right. Now, as energy secretary, he has delivered what he calls an exercise in “radical truth-telling” and a stark warning to MPs that rejecting climate action is a betrayal of future generations. The language, for once, isn’t overblown. It’s belated.
By highlighting the Met Office’s annual State of the UK Climate report, Mr Miliband shows that the hotter, wetter and more arduous future we feared has already arrived. Extremes are becoming the norm: the number of very hot days has quadrupled; in the last 250 years, six of the 10 wettest winter half-years have occurred in the 21st century. Britons experience this in cancelled hospital appointments, flooded homes and hosepipe bans.
In parliament, Mr Miliband let the data speak and created a tone of national reckoning rather than moral crusade. He cleverly sought to highlight British leadership on green issues – recasting climate action as a patriotic duty, not piety. By invoking past cross-party progress, he rooted net zero in a governing consensus, not ideology. Crucially, he linked climate and nature as intertwined crises, while signalling to younger voters that action is still possible.
The energy secretary is all too aware that public attention is fickle. Climate has slipped down the list of voter priorities. The cost of living dominates the political weather. But, far from making Mr Miliband’s intervention ill-timed, the changing public preferences make it essential. Voters may not think of it this way, but tackling global heating is no longer a matter of virtue – it’s become the most practical path we have to cheaper fuels, energy security and reducing our dependence on unstable regimes.
Reform UK’s plan to scrap net zero pledges, while banning onshore wind and solar subsidies, is not just scientifically reckless, it’s economically incoherent. But since the election, says the research unit Persuasion UK, Tory voters have been drifting toward Reform’s climate stance – turning net zero into a partisan battleground. Labour must understand that its green agenda isn’t losing votes. The public don’t blame it for high bills or slowing growth. The danger is, if Mr Miliband yields, the narrative will shift from leadership to retreat.
Mr Miliband will be judged not just by rhetoric but by delivery – on bills, conservation and oilfields like Rosebank and Jackdaw. He promised to cut energy bills by £300. After ditching zonal pricing, even some allies warn that “soaring” energy costs are being locked in for years. Campaigners are also wary that, while Mr Miliband defends biodiversity, Labour’s planning bill risks degrading habitats.
The energy secretary’s authority rests on whether he can resist pressure from business interests and the Treasury without blinking on net zero. His speech reads as a principled synthesis of climate and ecological breakdown. But it also reflects a compromise. Mr Miliband promised the Lib Dem MP Roz Savage an annual address to head off a rebellion in January, with Labour MPs ready to back her environmental bill. By turning it into a “State of the Climate” speech, he has hopefully established a new norm that can deliver political accountability to the generations to come.
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