The Labour Party pledged on Monday to ban fracking if elected in 2020, putting it at odds with the Conservative government and raising the risk for investors looking to put money into the nascent industry.
“Fracking locks the UK into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to renewables,” said Barry Gardiner, Labour’s energy and climate change spokesman.
He told the party’s annual conference in the northwestern city of Liverpool that a Labour government would focus on developing a low carbon energy industry.