Net Zero policies “harm human lives” and undermine “health, wealth and opportunity”, Donald Trump’s trade envoy Tommy Joyce has told Keir Starmer in an attack on Labour’s radical anti-hydrocarbon energy policy. The Telegraph has more.

Tommy Joyce, America’s Assistant Energy Secretary, told a conference in London set to be attended by the Prime Minister and opened by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband that climate zealotry is a threat to economic and national security.

“There is no national or economic security without energy security, and energy security is not possible without access to secure, affordable and reliable access to energy,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the focus during the last [US] administration was on climate politics and policies leading to that scarcity. These policies have been embraced by many, not just the United States, and harm human lives.”

His warning came after Mr Miliband opened the summit with a declaration that “home-grown, low-carbon power is our nationally chosen route to energy security”, warning that reliance on gas cost Britain dearly when international prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Joyce highlighted America’s exports of liquefied natural gas to countries including the UK and stressed the importance of cheap energy to prosperity.

He said: “Energy is essential to absolutely everything that we do. It’s the one industry that undergirds all of the others we know.

“A highly energised society raises people out of poverty and brings health, wealth and opportunity, wherever it’s found in abundance. When and where their energy is scarce or restricted, humans suffer.”

Mr Joyce also stressed the dangers of depending on China for the rare earth metals used in wind turbines, warning against “trading one form of dependency for another, putting abstract emissions goals – in the interest of our adversaries – first, and the security of our people last”.

Worth reading in full.