Carbon Brief fact-checks Reform’s climate nonsense.

This is a really useful resource for those of you who debate with Reform supporters, either online or when out campaigning in the community. It lists 45 commonly used statements by Reform campaigners about climate change and then details why they are completely unfounded or misleading.

Factcheck: Reform UK’s 45 false or misleading claims about climate and energy

Campaigner Jon Fuller said of the briefing, “This is a very valuable reference. It does raise the question as to how they have got away with such dangerous falsehoods for so long, and why they have never been fully challenged. We should demand that all BBC journalists read this and thoroughly cross-examine all anti-net-zero politicians using this information.”

Time and again, Reform poliiticians are not challenged by the media when they make statements such as “Net Stupid Zero”. This briefing will help interviewers with the facts needed to challenge their unscientific beliefs.

I would add the same for local journalists and broadcasters. It is vital for the survival of our species that people are properly informed about the urgency of tackling the climate and nature emergencies.

A good example is Reform’s constant claim that scrapping net zero will cut energy bills. Here is Carbon Brief’s response.

Farage: “Perhaps the real unfairness of net-zero policies…has been the impact on domestic bills, something about which there has been an absolute wall of silence.”

Press conference, February 2025

By far the biggest driver of increases in domestic energy bills in recent years has been the rising cost of gas, not “net-zero policies”.

Gas prices have been trending upwards since the mid-2000s, long before the UK even had a net-zero target. Initially, this was due to dwindling supplies in Europe – including the North Sea – as well as more global competition for gas.

Gas prices then surged in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and cut off supplies to Europe. This year, war in the Middle East has once again sent gas prices soaring.

Most of the energy bill increases in recent years have been the result of wholesale gas costs rising due to these successive global crises.

There are some parts of domestic energy bills that could be described as “net-zero policies” – notably, the subsidies or “green levies” to support both old and new renewable energy. 

However, these are not the drivers of recent price rises and are a much smaller component of a domestic energy bill than wholesale gas costs. (In addition, a chunk of policy costs have recently been moved off bills into general taxation.)

Moreover, the renewables they support have helped to curb the UK’s reliance on imported gas, saving the nation money.

Finally, the idea that this issue has faced a “wall of silence” is simply not true.

Energy bills and net-zero have been endlessly debated by politicians, commentators and the media. A pledge to cut energy bills was one of the central pillars of the Labour government’s election manifesto in 2024.”

Please take the time to read the article and share it with your contacts in the media. Use it to help you challenge Reform supporters on your local newspaper’s letter page or radio phone-in programme.