The UK’s Net Zero policies are destroying the foundations of the economy, according to a new paper by the Great British Business Council.
The authors argue that the UK is replacing secure domestic oil and gas production with expensive imports, and that gas security remains a real threat to the economy.
To reverse the trajectory, the paper recommends scrapping taxes and regulations that limit UK oil and gas production and encouraging exploration and investment in offshore and onshore fields to reduce costs and boost domestic supply.
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On 1 April, the Great British Business Council (“GBBC”), a newly formed think tank, published a paper titled ‘Premeditated Industrial Destruction: How the UK Destroyed Its Industry and A Plan To Reverse This’.
The paper is authored by economist Catherine McBride, retired engineer and consultant David Turver and public relations consultant Brian Monteith. It demonstrates how the Government’s Net Zero policies are destroying the foundations of the UK economy and provides recommendations on how Net Zero could be reversed.
Because this paper is important in revealing some home truths, we are reproducing it in a series of articles, more manageable chunks if you will, so that, hopefully, more will read it, or at least read part of it. We have made some minor edits for readability purposes. For those who choose to read the paper in one sitting, you can do so HERE.
The 21 Takeaways From This Paper
By Great British Business Council, 1 April 2026
1. Despite all the talk about electricity and renewables, almost 80% of UK Energy consumption comes from oil, gas and coal. Gas alone is 40% of total UK energy consumption. Yet we are deliberately replacing secure domestic production with expensive imports due to high taxes, reduced allowances, high carbon charges, and restrictions on finding and developing new oil and gas fields.
2. Gas security remains a real and immediate threat to the UK economy. The current conflict in the Persian Gulf, a recent cyclone in Northwestern Australia, and this summer’s scheduled maintenance of Norway’s pipelines and processing facilities will restrict global supply and push gas prices higher, increasing the UK’s trade deficit.
3. Oil and gas aren’t just fuel – they’re essential feedstocks for chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and fertilisers. High costs and green dogma are shutting down refineries and downstream industries.
4. Industrial heat for cement, glass, ceramics, aluminium and steel comes from gas and coal (plus metallurgical coal for steel production). Carbon taxes and sky-high energy prices are driving up construction costs – making homes, infrastructure, data centres and even wind turbine installation more expensive.
5. Scrap the taxes and regulations that limit UK oil and gas production, such as the Energy Profits Levy (windfall tax), the Oil and Gas Price Mechanism, the Carbon Price Support tax and the restrictions on fracking, exploration and development of new fields. They are not part of the UK’s Paris Agreement commitments; removing them would reduce costs, revive industries and boost domestic supply.
6. The UK government should copy Norway: encourage exploration and invest in offshore and onshore fields such as Lincolnshire’s Gainsborough Trough. The Norwegian government owns 67% of Equinor, the oil and gas major and encourages exploration in the North Sea, enabling companies to continue finding new fields.
7. Coal remains the world’s #1 energy source. The UK has high-quality anthracite and thermal coal – mine it, export it, and build modern, clean coal plants for fast, firm power. Old mine waste holds rare earths and critical minerals – extract them.
8. Extractive industries: oil, gas and coal, as well as their downstream industries: oil refining, chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals, have very high productivity – output per worker. Forcing these industries to close due to high corporate and carbon taxes on their production and necessary inputs has lowered total UK productivity and GVA, and devastated regional employment.
9. Britain’s top exports – fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, aircraft parts – rely on imported raw materials. Reducing the supply of North Sea oil and gas, taxing energy and taxing imported raw materials make UK goods less competitive in international markets, thus lowering UK exports and increasing the UK’s trade deficit.
10. The UK’s largest goods export sector: vehicles and aircraft parts, relies on large amounts of aluminium, which is produced using electricity and gas. But UK carbon taxes, high industrial electricity costs and environmental regulations have driven 95% of UK primary aluminium production out of the country.
11. UN emissions accounting treats a 30-year aircraft wing the same as a disposable drink can. This absurd equivalence punishes durable, high-value manufacturing.
12. The UK cannot achieve Net Zero with the current technology – and the international accounting system for CO2 emissions excludes imported goods. The UK imported goods with 180 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2024, making a nonsense of the UK’s claims to have cut its emissions by 300 million tonnes.
13. Imported goods may have higher emissions than UK-made equivalents but are not counted as UK emissions under the UN system. As a result, shortsighted UK politicians focus only on territorial CO2 emissions and favour imports over domestically produced goods, ignoring employment, tax revenue and export income.
14. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (“CBAM”) will increase the cost of inputs for the UK’s complex goods, such as chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, glass, ceramics and vehicle and aircraft manufacturing. The EU’s CBAM only covers simple input products: iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, cement, hydrogen and electricity. The UK is reliant on imported supplies of all of them.
15. There is no single global oil price. Oil prices vary by grade, supply and demand, delivery cost and insurance. North Sea Brent Crude is highly valued because it is a light, sweet oil, particularly suited to the production of petrol, diesel, jet fuel and chemicals. We should not be leaving it under the North Sea.
16. Natural gas prices vary with its composition, location and transport costs. North Sea gas fields connected to the UK via pipeline ensure dependable supplies. Converting gas to a liquid and transporting it is expensive, energy-intensive and requires specialist plant. The UK does not have any plants to convert gas to LNG.
17. Scrap the ZEV mandate, EV [electric vehicle] subsidies and fines imposed on car manufacturers for selling people the ICE [internal combustion engine] cars they want to buy. Stop the time-consuming task of enforcing EV sales, focus on supplying urban chargers and let the market decide.
18. Both major parties have deindustrialised Britain through energy taxes and environmental red tape. Reversing this may require exiting the Paris Agreement, the ECHR and similar agreements. The US is moving that way – the UK should too.
19. Financial and insurance rules should focus on real risk/reward – not hypothetical 100-year climate scenarios – unless the investment literally lasts 100 years. Company reports should focus on company results, not on Net Zero commitments.
20. Award government and council contracts on ability to deliver – not Net Zero virtue-signalling. Scrap the requirements that demand contractors produce carbon-reduction plans, Net Zero commitments and low-carbon specifications.
21. Hydrocarbons are not going away. Data centres and AI will drive UK gas demand for dispatchable power from about 8 TWh to 26 TWh by 2030 (Oxford Economics). Demand for cement and steel needed to build data centres will explode too – production of both requires gas and coal. Leaving the UK’s oil, gas and coal resources in the ground is a self-inflicted economic disaster.
About The Great British Business Council
The Great British Business Council (“GBBC”) was established to enhance public and political understanding of the advantages a thriving business community provides to local security, standard of living and wellbeing. It aims to support British firms and small businesses by promoting well-crafted, practical, evidence-based policy reforms that foster enterprise and innovation. It is independent of any political party, as it hopes that all parties will consider adopting the straightforward, practical policy suggestions it proposes.
The GBBC is funded by private donations from concerned citizens who want the UK to thrive economically as it once did. If you would like to join us or donate to their cause, please contact in**@**BC.UK or follow them on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Bluesky.
Featured image: Cover of the GBBC paper, ‘Premeditated Industrial Destruction: How the UK Destroyed Its Industry and A Plan To Reverse This’
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Categories: Breaking News, UK News