# Tories overstate net zero cost by £500bn in spreadsheet error

> Kemi Badenoch's flagship policy document cites a figure twice the actual total, apparently after someone double-counted rows on a spreadsheet.
- Title: Tories overstate net zero cost by £500bn in spreadsheet error
- Summary: Kemi Badenoch's flagship policy document cites a figure twice the actual total, apparently after someone double-counted rows on a spreadsheet. The…
- Keywords: kemi badenoch, conservative party, net zero, climate policy, the right way, climate change committee, news, world, Tories, overstate, net, zero
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/09/tories-overstate-net-zero-cost-500bn-spreadsheet-error
- Published: 2026-10-09T06:00:41+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: kemi badenoch, conservative party, net zero, climate policy, the right way, climate change committee, news, world
## Badenoch's net zero cost claim is wrong
Kemi Badenoch's flagship policy document The Right Way states net zero would cost nine hundred fifty seven billion pounds. The figure is nearly five hundred billion pounds too high.
## The error came from double-counting
The document cites the Climate Change Committee's Sixth Carbon Budget. Someone apparently double-counted rows on a spreadsheet, including totals for each column alongside the overall total.
## The actual figure is half what Badenoch claimed
The Climate Change Committee's report actually puts gross economic costs at one point four trillion pounds, falling to four hundred seventy eight billion pounds when savings are taken into account.
## The committee disputes the number
A Climate Change Committee spokesperson said: "We don't recognise this number." The committee's most recent analysis puts the cost of achieving net zero by twenty fifty at about one hundred ten billion pounds, or about…

> We don't recognise this number.
## The error may have spread widely
Carbon Brief spotted the error and informed the Guardian. The figure appears to have been published by the Institute of Economic Affairs and included in an article in the Spectator.
## Key takeaway

The Conservative party's net zero cost estimate in Kemi Badenoch's policy document was nearly five hundred billion pounds too high due to an apparent spreadsheet error that double-counted figures.