Kemi Badenoch has vowed to cut energy costs and revive British industry if she becomes Prime Minister by scrapping Ed Miliband's Net Zero drive.
In a major policy move, she said a Conservative government would replace Labour's Climate Change Act with a strategy putting cheap and reliable power first.
The Tory leader attacked the legislation – passed by current Energy Secretary Mr Miliband in 2008 when he was a minister under Gordon Brown – for introducing legally binding targets and burdensome regulations, leading to higher bills.
It is blamed for increasing the cost of gas boilers by forcing families to buy heat pumps and for making ministers support the controversial Drax power station, which claims to produce eco-friendly electricity by burning wood pellets.
Mrs Badenoch also pledged to abolish the Climate Change Committee, a quango which urges Britons to eat less meat and take fewer flights to cut carbon emissions.
