Politicians have rejected a bid to hold a referendum on the future of the Isle of Man’s net zero policy.
MHK Stu Peters had called for the vote on whether the government should continue its commitment to reaching the carbon emissions target by 2050, arguing it would “gauge the appetite” of people on its “eye-watering costs”.
However, Tynwald members instead backed an amendment that stated the 2026 general election would allow an opportunity for all matters – including net zero – “to be democratically considered.”
That was put forward by Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Clare Barber, who said that candidates would be able to set out their views on climate change during the campaign.
She said that since the government’s climate change fund was established in 2022, £8.5m had been spent, and 80% of that had been to improve the energy efficiency “directly in constituents homes” – to reduce their energy bills and consumption.
Last year a bid by Peters for the government to relax net zero emissions targets and budgets was also rejected.
During the latest debate he the referendum would not be “binding” and argued that the amendment was a “cop out from Government.”
He argued the move would “merely establish a reliable public mandate and reinforce government’s commitment to net zero.”
Supporting the idea, Julie Edge MHK argued the policies that had been decided were “clearly not aligning with the Manx public”, and if the result was to continue with net zero, the policy should be reviewed.
She added: “There is a lot of public support for what Mr Peters is trying to achieve, so do we just carry on, or do we listen?”
However, John Wannenburgh MHK said politicians were “duty-bound” to reduce the amount of money on an annual basis spent off-island on fossil fuels, which had a price which “we have no control over”, by using renewables.
He argued a referendum risked delaying progress and “oversimplifying the scale of the challenge”
MLC Gary Clueit warned the “language that would dominate a referendum campaign” would be that of “conspiracy”, and “not evidence, not economics, not energy security.”
Infrastructure Minister Michelle Haywood said the matter of net zero was “not a simple, definable issue” and the actions being taken on the path to it were “embedded in what we are doing across government”.
Climate change was an “internationally recognised issue,” she said, adding: “We are going to be forced into adopting low or zero emission technologies, mainly because we don’t manufacture our own.”
The amended motion was supported by 16 members in the House of Keys, with six voting against, and gained the backing of all five MLCs present for the vote.