Tories Say They’d Scrap One of Boris Johnson’s Most Successful Climate Policies in ‘Embarrassing’ Move

Reports state that Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party, will pledge tomorrow at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen that her party would reverse a Boris Johnson-era policy that bars UK government “financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas.” Badenoch made this announcement alongside a number of other pledges, including ending “Labour’s ban” on North Sea oil and gas licencing. 

The UK’s international fossil fuel finance policy, established in 2020 by Boris Johnson in support of UK business interests, is a world-first policy where the UK committed to end its taxpayer-backed finance for overseas fossil fuels. At the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow, the UK Government established the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) initiative where 40 signatories – including Canada, Australia and many European countries – signed up to follow the UK’s lead. The initiative has been remarkably successful, reducing international fossil fuel finance by up to two-thirds (or USD 15 billion a year) since 2021. 

Boris Johnson saw this policy as a way to promote the UK’s economy and global leadership, “expediting the shift to supporting green technology and renewable energy, creating jobs across the UK and driving international growth in the industry.”

With the next UK general election years away, Badenoch’s pledge is unlikely to be fulfilled, especially given that reversing the policy would now make the UK an international outlier, and with majority voter support across all parties for climate action. 

Responding to the news, Adam McGibbon, Campaign Strategist at Oil Change International, said,

“This is an embarrassing pledge by Kemi Badenoch. The UK ended its taxpayer financing for fossil fuels 5 years ago, and in 2021, 40 countries matched the UK’s leadership – a significant international achievement by Boris Johnson, a Conservative prime minister. 

“The UK government agencies that used to fund fossil fuels overseas are now international leaders in funding green energy. Forcing them to go back to fossil fuels is like Kemi Badenoch insisting the UK government starts funding VHS tapes while the rest of the world watches Netflix.”

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Notes to Editor

• The Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) is a partnership of 40 signatories including the UK, Canada, Norway, Australia and many EU countries, that has successfully reduced international public finance for fossil fuels by up to two-thirds or USD 15 billion a year, compared to a pre-CETP baseline. Oil Change International’s regularly-updated Leaders & Laggards policy tracker shows a high level of compliance with the initiatives pledges amongst signatories.
• Climate initiatives like the CETP and energy security and affordability goals go hand in hand. At the 2025 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, the Head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol said that “a successful clean energy transition is the one which makes the energy systems much more secure and resilient, makes the energy prices affordable and at the same time reduces the reliance on other countries.”