FORMER prime minister Tony Blair has been slammed for a "counterproductive" intervention after he attacked efforts to limit climate change.
The ex Labour chief said net-zero strategies that aim to limit fossil fuels are "doomed to fail", and that environmental policies are "not working".
In a report for the Tony Blair Institute, Blair said politics were driving voters away from net-zero confidence, despite recent polling finding majority support for driving down greenhouse gases.
The Scottish Greens did not welcome the comments from the former PM, with Patrick Harvie accusing him of "advocating for business as usual while the world is burning around us".
He told The National: “We need to listen to the experts who have spent years warning us that our dependency on fossil fuels must end, if we are to pull back from the edge of climate breakdown. We can’t wish the climate crisis away and hope for the best. Phasing out fossil fuels is the very least that we need to do
“Scotland has the skills, the resources and an abundance of clean energy sources at our disposal. There is no time to waste to reach net zero. We need to act fast.”
In his report, Blair wrote that global trends including the expected rise in fossil fuel use and the doubling of airline travel over the next 20 years undermine current climate policies.
“These are the inconvenient facts, which mean that any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail,” he wrote.
He argued there should more focus on emerging technologies such as nuclear fusion, sustainable aviation fuel and carbon capture.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he agreed with “a lot” in the institute's paper, titled The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action On Climate Change.
Speaking in the Commons, he said: “There’s a lot in it that I do agree with.
“It says on CCS (carbon capture and storage), we should move ahead, which this Government is.
“On AI and the role of AI, this Government should move ahead, which we are.
“On nuclear, we should move ahead, which this Government is doing.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “As the Prime Minister said last week, the clean energy mission is in the DNA of this Government, because it is the route to energy security, lower bills and good jobs for our country.
“We have already seen £43 billion of private investment announced into clean energy since July, with businesses backing our plan to deliver good jobs for working people, including 2000 only last week in carbon capture and storage.
“We will continue to deliver our mission to make our country secure and drive economic growth for our plan for change.”
Acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie said: “It seems even Tony Blair has come to the realisation that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party’s mad dash to net zero by 2050 is simply not feasible, or sustainable.
“As Ed Miliband’s net-zero zealotry pushes this country’s energy security even further into the arms of China, and their slave labour supply chains, and risks driving up energy bills further and further, only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are telling the truth about energy policy in this country.
“Under new leadership, we have been clear that the cost of net zero by 2050 to families will be far too high, and we must urgently change course.
“Will Labour now finally be prepared to do the same, and put the national interest above their own ideological dogma?”
