PM denies watering down clean energy pledge

The Prime Minister has denied rowing back on clean energy targets as he pledged to remove barriers to major infrastructure projects.

Sir Keir Starmer last week highlighted being on track for 95% clean power by 2030 as one of the key milestones for his Government.

Although Labour’s pre-election manifesto had pledged “zero carbon electricity by 2030”, the Prime Minister said that there had been no change to the level of ambition and stressed there was always going to be a mix of energy sources.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband also insisted there had been no change, saying “that is what the Climate Change Committee said in their original definition of what a clean power system was”.

Sir Keir also said he was committed to streamlining the approval process for 150 major infrastructure projects, including energy projects.