Chris Skidmore: the Conservative minister who signed Net Zero into law - and then bogged off

Part 12 of Eco Emergency

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Today I am going to give you A LOT of information about one of the most industrious men in Britain, and maybe even the world, Chris Skidmore.

He’s the former UK Energy and Clean Growth Minister we can all thank for signing Net Zero into law in 2019.

The Conservative MP was delighted with his breakthrough at the time, comparing it to the Industrial Revolution:

Today we’re leading the world yet again in becoming the first major economy to pass new laws to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 while remaining committed to growing the economy - putting clean growth at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy.

Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it!

Two years later Skidmore launched The Independent Net Zero Review. He even turned it into a book which you can buy on Amazon for £11.39.

Despite signing Net Zero into law, Skidmore didn’t stick around long afterwards…

In January this year he resigned as an MP, blaming the Conservative government’s new oil and gas licence plan. As if channelling Jean Valjean from Les Miserables, Skidmore explained that he could “no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm. To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained.”

“2460111111!” (sorry, don’t know why Jean Valjean comes to mind)

Skidmore’s departure triggered yet another by-election for The Conservative Party.

To be fair to Skidmore, he did seem to have rather a lot on his plate at the time - so maybe we should be sympathetic. It’s not easy being a public servant when you have THIS amount of registered interests (as of 6 March 2023):

Something’s got to give!

And let’s not forget THE BOOK - which must have been very vexing, making it all the more distressing that it has no customer reviews:

Silver linings, though: it boasts the support of The Carbon Trust, Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee and William Hague (who knows, maybe he’s even leant his mate Angelina Jolie a copy!).

Interestingly, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, a member of the Climate Change Committee (which advises on the Government’s Net Zero strategy) is Chair of the Board at The Carbon Trust. It seems to come up a lot (as you’ll soon see).

Anyway, soon after Skidmore departed government he took up a number of roles, such as being Chair and Founding Partner at Desmos Capital Partners and Chief Operating Officer of Better Earth Limited.

But none of these compare to his role as Chair of the Climate Action Coalition, “an independent organisation that works in formal partnerships with multiple UN Agencies”:

Its founder and CEO Nick Henry established Climate Action in 2007 “in collaboration with UN Environment”, and together he and Skidmore have formed the “Climate Action Coalition” with US Secretary John Kerry:

It’s clear there are quite a lot of these coalitions, which - funnily enough! - link back to the UN…

Unsurprisingly the UN is partners with Climate Action. Here’s the full breakdown of its private sector partners…

… and “programme and institutional partners”:

Some key takeaways:

• The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Innovate UK are listed as partners of Climate Action, which means we (aka taxpayers) are funding/ have funded it.

• The Carbon Trust is listed as a partner.

• Siemens, also a partner, has a contract to manufacture 94 new metro trains to serve the Piccadilly line (this is a bit of a boring note - but to show there’s a link to the Mayor of London).

• The word “mission” creeps up a couple of times - which is textbook Professor Marianna Mazzucato (a pseudo-economist who advises Keir Starmer and has advised multiple governments):

You may also noticed C40 Cities as a partner…

… which may explain why Sadiq Khan (Co-Chair of C40) features on Climate Action’s website with King Charles III:

Khan is also connected to the UN:

In general, Climate Action shows just how corporate and slimy the “climate emergency” tends to be (who fancies some “Climate Bonds” as the world ends?)

Extraordinarily - given how busy he has been with Climate Action - Skidmore managed to make it to the Labour Party Conference this year, appearing on a panel with Labour donor Dale Vince:

Skidmore said the conference was “definitely a change of scene to what I’m used to”. (Yeah, it must have felt soooo unfamiliar being around people who want to make money out of the environmental agenda…)

Skidmore and Vince spoke at a Zero Hour event “powered by Ecotricity” (Vince’s company):

Another campaigner for Zero Hour is Chris Packham…

… who recently received £35k from the Government over its delay reaching Net Zero targets:

You know, the ones signed into law by Skidmore…

What a small world “saving the planet” is!

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