Standing up against Reform UK's climate denial
The urgency of the climate crisis can now be in no doubt, with the science established over decades. But at a time where headlines demonstrating the impact of climate breakdown appear almost daily - heatwaves, wildfires and floods - Reform UK is promoting dangerous climate denial. This includes myths which are widely repeated in much of the mainstream media. It's really important that we take on these myths and make it clear that there is an alternative to retreating from climate action - real solutions which would benefit us all.
We have flyers available which summarise the key reasons why Reform's approach will not help ordinary people, but ultimately make our lives more dangerous and difficult. They set out what we believe the alternative is: not 'business as usual' but taking strong climate action which makes our lives better. If you'd like some of these flyers, get in touch at info@campaigncc.org. This page gives more detail and links to sources if you'd like to read more about the issues.
The photos above are from protests against Reform-led Kent council scrapping the council's climate emergency declaration, credit Laura Manston.
Reform UK want to stop climate action
That would be a disaster in a dangerously heating world
The impacts of climate breakdown are already here, and are hitting hardest those who have actually done least to cause the crisis. Here in the UK, temperatures reached a previously impossible 40C record in 2022. Our workplaces and homes are poorly equipped to cope with these heatwaves, which cause not just stress and discomfort, but thousands of excess deaths. Firefighters are having to battle both wildfires and floods.
Climate change is also increasing food prices. In the UK, and around the world, farmers' crop yields have been hit by both extreme drought and floods. In the headlines we see repeated disasters, from wildfires in Southern Europe to floods in Pakistan, made much more extreme by the climate crisis.
These impacts follow decades of warnings from climate scientists and clear advice about the actions we need to take to keep us safe: switching from fossil fuels to clean energy; investing in our homes so they need less energy to heat; and adapting so our infrastructure, communities and homes are more resillient to extreme weather. We are running out of time to avert the worst impacts of climate breakdown. Yet Reform UK wish to scrap climate action.
As the UK experienced its hottest summer in history, with widespread drought across England, Reform UK’s Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Dame Andrea Jenkyns said: "Do I believe that climate change exists? No."
In Lincolnshire they have declared war on renewable energy, describing wind and solar as 'eyesores', meanwhile promoting fracking in the British countryside. Their leaders are closely linked to the alliance of right wingers who helped bring Trump to power with his 'drill baby drill' agenda to remove all environmental protections, block clean energy and maximise fossil fuel burning.
Reform UK claim to stand up for working people. But they advocate fewer rights for workers and cutting green jobs
Reform’s war on renewable energy and climate action is a war against jobs. Their policies wouldn’t just endanger the jobs of the hundreds of thousands already employed in the UK’s expanding green economy, but also block the hundreds of thousands more climate jobs we need in future, in communities around the country. In total, across wind and solar, it's estimated that Reform’s ambition to halt all large-scale renewables would destroy over 60,000 jobs by the end of this decade, and many more in the supply chain. The ‘green economy’, which is much wider than just energy generation, is one of the few sectors to actually thrive and expand in recent years as the wider economy has struggled.
As a worker in a Merseyside factory making electric cars asks, "Why does Nigel Farage want me to lose my job?"
As an avowed fan of Margaret Thatcher, Farage’s claimed support for industrial workers is hard to trust. In fact, Reform intend to weaken legal protections for employees, making all workers more insecure in their jobs - it's in their 2024 manifesto (p8). The party’s MPs all voted against the employment rights bill to ban zero-hours contracts and give staff the right to sick pay from the start of their employment.
We can't drill our way to energy security
More drilling in the North Sea won’t keep energy bills down. For one thing, the North Sea is running out of gas, with jobs in the North Sea oil industry having halved in a decade even with a policy of maximising extraction under the previous Conservative government. Even if new fields are opened up, in just 15 years’ time the dwindling fields will only be able to supply a small fraction of the gas we currently burn. Importantly, the prices we pay are set on the international market. We will still be at the mercy of global fossil fuel price rises, where oil companies (who own all the gas and oil extracted) who can rake in vast profits when prices go up at the expense of ordinary households. No amount of North Sea drilling or fracking our countryside could change that
The wind and sun are energy sources which will never run out, and their supply is not affected by wars or global markets. The cost of renewable energy has fallen dramatically, to now become the cheapest form of power generation. There's only one thing which is cheaper - and that's the energy we don't use at all, in other words improving energy efficiency to reduce demand. Home energy bills could be dramatically reduced by measures such as insulation and heat pumps.
Reform UK claim stopping immigration will fix Britain’s problems - but stoking hate and racism fixes nothing
After over a decade of austerity, public services are struggling, and communities around the country are in dire need of investment. Many local councils are in financial crisis due to funding cuts, forced to slash spending on services such as housing, libraries and transport to protect statutory social services. Reform claim they can cut even further with ‘efficiency’ savings, but delivering such cuts would just mean more austerity and cuts to public services. It is worrying that Nigel Farage says he would would like to copy Elon Musk, whose ‘efficiency’ wrecking spree in the US has saved little money but destroyed thousands of vital jobs, including in air traffic control, climate science, hurricane warning systems and cancer research.
One of Reform UK's clearest messages is to point the finger at immigration as the main cause of every problem in this country. The media (and even the government) are only too willing to back this narrative. Rather than building back communities, this empowers racists who are trying to break them apart, threatening not only asylum seekers, but Muslim communities and anyone perceived as non-white. Reform UK election candidates have aired shocking racism against Muslims, Jews and Black people on social media. Since this year's local elections, a significant number of Reform councillors have resigned or been expelled from the party, some over racist posts.
Reform's donors - links to offshore tax havens and fossil fuel interests
Reform promises tax cuts which would mainly benefit the richest, including allowing the wealthy to inherit up to £2 million without paying tax. The party’s biggest funders are in fact the super-wealthy. In early 2025, the party launched a fundraising drive targeting oil and gas companies and wealthy UK citizens living in tax havens. A few months later, Reform proposed that the super-rich should be exempt from paying taxes in the UK on their overseas wealth for a one-off fee - a policy estimated to cost £34 billion over the first five years alone.
Reform claim to be patriotic and represent UK interests - but it is very clear their leader, Nigel Farage, is more interested in spending time with Donald Trump and radical right wing networks, taking nine trips to the US during his first year as an elected UK MP. Reform has close links to US climate denial organisations such as the Heartland Institute.
The alternative - not ‘business as usual’ but real action
We need to face up to the real challenges, including the climate crisis and those caused by inequality and austerity. We need to invest in real solutions, not simply put more money in the pockets of those who caused the problems in the first place. It is clear Reform politicians aren’t the only ones influenced by corporate lobbyists and donors.
Taking action on the climate crisis and building a fairer society go together. We can plan our towns and cities so they are more resilient to heatwaves and floods, with good affordable public transport and clean air; build and adapt homes so they are cheaper to heat and easier to cool down; and build more wind and solar energy – now much cheaper than fossil fuels. We need to prioritise the needs of communities, including ensuring workers have decent jobs building a sustainable future.