An MHK and former Cabinet Office Minister has called for the government’s Net Zero Isle of Man campaign to be abandoned, branding it ‘superfluous’.

Kate Lord-Brennan spoke out about the initiative during lengthy discussions in Tynwald on Tuesday on the new budget plans in place for the 2025/26 financial year.

The Glenfaba and Peel MHK, who held the role of Cabinet Minister until late last year, said in her speech to fellow Tynwald members: ‘We cannot afford to budget for a system which is predicated upon reliance on reserves.

‘If that is continually the case, it is telling us we must change the system, set parameters and reorient towards core priorities and essential services.

‘Populist promotion of the day, dressed up as productive action and lecturing (yes, I am thinking about Net Zero Isle of Man) needs to be recognised as superfluous and abandoned.

‘Busy work must be phased out in an effort to focus resources in the delivery of core services to and for the public.

‘Productivity, not activity, must be the watchword.

‘We could not go far wrong, with seeing which aspects of government activity, within the system and within departments, pass the “so-what” test.

‘How much of it is delivering on the set political priorities, or is it just shiny livery on an old car?

‘These priorities will need updating, and a re-evaluation is needed - for financial and global reasons.’

Despite her current stance on Net Zero Isle of Man, Ms Lord-Brennan had previously stated in the build up to the 2021 general election that the environment was ‘one of her priorities’.

In 2022, she also brought forward a motion to Tynwald with the aim of reducing the island's carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2035.

The effectiveness of Net Zero Isle of Man was also brought up in a Tynwald sitting in December.

A motion was tabled during the sitting by Middle MHK Stu Peters, which called on the government to revisit its Net Zero ambitions and budgets.

‘The science is not settled,’ Mr Peters said at the time. ‘There is no proven link between CO2 and global warming. It’s more a cult or religion than anything else.

‘Are we doing the right thing? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’

Speaking during the December sitting, Ms Lord-Brennan said that she believed Mr Peters’s original motion was ‘completely reasonable’.

However, Daphne Caine, who stepped down as chair of the Climate Change Transformation Board following her appointment as Education Minister at the end of last year, said: ‘We started our net zero journey 30 years later than we should have done.

‘Climate change is real and is happening as much in the island as elsewhere. We must stop the narrative that we are somehow too small to count.’

In 2022, the Government published a five-year climate change plan with the overall aim of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

In the original five-year plan, Chief Minister Alfred Cannan said: ‘The proposals in this Plan represent the first steps of measures that will grow and develop, ensuring our emissions reductions are on-track for net zero by 2050.

‘I am confident that as a nation we can meet this challenge together and take the action needed to limit climate change and protect our community and future generations.

‘The next five years will be pivotal, and I urge everyone to support the delivery of this Plan.’

Concerns were recently raised by the Isle of Man environmental group ‘Friends of the Earth’ that almost a third of climate change projects had either been put on hold or not started.

In response, a spokesperson from the government said: ‘While we acknowledge the challenges highlighted, we continue to prioritise the acceleration of climate action, ensuring that funding and governance processes align with the urgency required to meet our ambitious targets.’