Who really runs the United Kingdom

Introduction

1.5 The Blair Years:- Globalism, Climate Leadership, and the New Political Consensus

When Tony Blair entered Downing Street in May 1997, it was not just the beginning of a new government. It was the birth of a new political settlement. The Labour leader declared the arrival of “New Labour, New Britain” a phrase that was far more than a slogan. It represented the culmination of a decades-long process in which Britain’s political class shifted its centre of gravity away from the gritty industrial economy, the sovereign power of Parliament, and the interests of working communities, and towards a vision of global integration, technocratic governance, and environmental transformation.

Blair is often remembered for his foreign policy, particularly the Iraq War, which defined his later years in office. But his domestic legacy is equally significant  and arguably even more enduring. It was under Blair, and later Gordon Brown, that the foundations for the Climate Change Act of 2008 were laid. The ideological commitment to “climate leadership,” intertwined with Blair’s embrace of globalisation and supranational governance, created the conditions under which Parliament would willingly place itself under the authority of the newly formed Climate Change Committee (CCC).

Blair’s years in power are pivotal to this story. He was not simply responding to scientific findings or public concern about the environment; he was shaping a narrative in which climate change became the moral justification for a wider political project: the erosion of national sovereignty in favour of a new kind of transnational governance. To understand how Britain arrived at the constitutional straitjacket of Net Zero, one must scrutinise the Blair era.

1.5.1 The Global Turn: Blair and the “Third Way”

Blair’s premiership coincided with the zenith of what was called the Third Way, a political project that claimed to transcend the old left–right divide. Unlike the socialism of Old Labour or the free-market radicalism of Thatcher, Blair’s vision was one of “modernisation.” He embraced the globalised economy, open markets, mass immigration, and the embedding of Britain within international institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations.

Climate change proved a perfect fit for this project. It was framed as the ultimate global problem. Something that no single nation could solve, and therefore an issue that required international cooperation and, crucially, the ceding of sovereignty to multilateral bodies. For Blair, this was not a drawback but a virtue. “Globalisation is not a choice; it is a fact,” he famously declared in 1999, arguing that the only rational response was to embrace global governance structures⁸. Climate change became both a symbol and a vehicle for this broader political philosophy.

The creation of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in 2001 signalled how deeply climate and environmental concerns were being woven into the fabric of Whitehall. What had once been the preserve of scientists, campaigners, and niche policymakers was now positioned at the very heart of government. DEFRA was tasked not only with traditional responsibilities such as farming and fisheries but also with climate change policy. This institutionalisation of the environmental agenda ensured that climate considerations would permeate every aspect of government decision-making.

1.5.2 Kyoto and the Birth of the Climate Mandate

Blair’s government was also instrumental in pushing Britain onto the global stage as a self-declared climate leader. In December 1997, the UK signed the Kyoto Protocol, the first international treaty to set legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions⁹. Though the protocol’s targets were modest by later standards , requiring the UK to cut emissions by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008–2012, the symbolism was immense.

Blair saw Kyoto as an opportunity to position Britain as a moral and political leader in a new global cause. Coming just four years after the debacle of the Iraq War, Blair needed a narrative that could rehabilitate his international reputation. Climate change offered precisely that. By presenting the UK as a nation willing to lead by example, Blair could argue that Britain was punching above its weight on the world stage.

Domestically, Kyoto was sold as both a moral imperative and an economic opportunity. The government’s Climate Change Programme (2000) set out measures to reduce emissions, while the Renewables Obligation (2002) forced electricity suppliers to source an increasing share of power from renewable technologies¹⁰. These policies were marketed as a way of creating green jobs and leading a global “green industrial revolution.”

But the economic reality was very different. The Renewables Obligation effectively imposed a hidden tax on consumers by requiring suppliers to buy renewable energy at above-market rates, with the costs passed directly onto bills. By 2010, households were already paying hundreds of pounds extra per year to subsidise wind farms and biomass plants¹¹. Industry, too, bore the brunt, with energy-intensive manufacturers facing higher costs that undermined their global competitiveness.

This was the beginning of what we might call the “subsidy state.” Instead of letting market demand shape energy supply, government and its quangos began to dictate outcomes, funnelling billions into favoured technologies regardless of cost or practicality. This was not simply about cutting emissions; it was about creating a new political economy in which state-backed industries and global climate networks held the reins.

1.5.3 The Rise of the Quango State

Under Blair, the number and influence of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations ,or quangos expanded dramatically. These bodies were presented as a solution to the inefficiency and partisanship of parliamentary politics. By delegating power to “independent experts,” the government claimed it was depoliticising decision-making. In reality, it was moving power out of democratic hands and into a technocratic elite.

The Carbon Trust, established in 2001, is emblematic of this shift. Funded by government but operating at arm’s length, the Trust was tasked with accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. Its reports, funded by taxpayers, often read more like advocacy documents than neutral assessments. They championed wind and solar, downplayed the limitations of intermittency and storage, and dismissed alternatives such as nuclear or domestic gas expansion. Yet because they were produced under the banner of “independent expertise,” they carried enormous weight in policy debates¹².

The Energy Saving Trust, also created in the early 2000s, was another vehicle for embedding climate orthodoxy into everyday life. Its campaigns encouraged households to change appliances, insulate homes, and alter behaviour .Often with subsidies drawn from levies on consumer bills. What appeared as “consumer advice” was, in practice, a form of state-funded behavioural conditioning.

The proliferation of quangos extended beyond energy. Blair created more than 110 new public bodies during his decade in office, while abolishing or merging fewer than half that number¹³. Many of these were tasked with implementing aspects of the government’s climate or sustainability agenda. They were not directly accountable to voters, but they shaped regulation, funded research, and influenced policy in ways that Parliament could not easily reverse.

This was the second stage of Britain’s quiet constitutional revolution. Where Thatcher had weakened organised labour, Blair built new institutions that entrenched the power of unelected experts and international networks. Sovereignty was not taken from Parliament overnight. It was eroded gradually, shifted step by step away from the democratic arena.

1.5.4 The Convergence of Globalism and Climate

By the early 2000s, climate change had become more than an environmental concern: it was a central pillar of global governance. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Third Assessment Report in 2001, warning of severe consequences without immediate action¹⁴. The European Union set ambitious renewable energy and emissions targets, binding member states to long-term commitments. The United Nations launched the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, encouraging Western nations to fund projects abroad rather than invest in domestic resilience.

Blair seized on these frameworks as a way of embedding Britain within an international system that transcended domestic politics. He presented climate leadership as Britain’s moral duty and as a way of exercising influence in a post-imperial world. “This is not a time to falter,” he told the Labour Party conference in 2004, insisting that climate change demanded “a new internationalism”¹⁵.

This rhetoric masked a deeper reality. Britain was not leading the world in energy innovation; it was increasingly dependent on imported gas, closing nuclear plants without replacement, and subsidising biomass imported from across the Atlantic. But by framing climate change as an issue of global governance, Blair shifted the political debate away from practical questions of cost, security, and sovereignty. The climate agenda became untouchable, insulated by moral fervour and international consensus.

Endnotes (Section 1.5 – Part 1)

8. Tony Blair, “The Doctrine of the International Community,” speech in Chicago, 24 April 1999.


9. United Nations, Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1997.


10. UK Government, “The UK Climate Change Programme,” Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000.


11. House of Commons Library, “Renewable Energy Statistics,” Briefing Paper No. 1870, 2010.


12. Carbon Trust, Annual Report 2003–04, London: Carbon Trust, 2004.


13. House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, Public Bodies: Seventh Report of Session 2003–04, HC 1188, 2004.


14. IPCC, Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001 – Synthesis Report, Geneva: IPCC, 2001.


15. Blair, Tony. “Speech to the Labour Party Conference,” Brighton, 28 September 2004.