Andy Burnham today gave vocal support to Net Zero and ploughed more taxpayer cash into reaching 2050 environmental targets today, despite MPs warning weary voters are increasingly turned off by it.

The Prime Minister said he was ‘determined’ to reach the mid-century milestones as he announced nearly £30million for community-led renewable ‘People’s Power projects’.

The pledge came after an influential group of MPs recommended the phrase Net Zero should be scrapped by the Government as it has become toxic to the public.

The cross-party Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee warned in its latest report that it has now ‘lost much of its significant positive association’.

But Mr Burnham said he was ‘acutely aware’ of Britons’ concern about climate change after a summer of record heat.

‘The climate crisis is not a distant threat. It is here and with us now,’ the Prime Minister wrote in an op-ed in The Guardian.

He said the country would need to adapt to the crisis by changing ‘the way we travel, build homes and produce energy’.

‘I have long seen the green transition as the best chance we will ever have to reindustrialise Britain.’

The funding for ‘People’s Power projects’ would allow communities to build and control their own clean energy supply, he said, arguing that ‘the only lasting way to bring down bills is to produce more of our own clean, renewable energy at home’.

He also wrote: ‘I am determined that we meet the commitment on which Labour was elected and reach Net Zero by 2050.

‘I want Britain to believe in itself again.’

It appears to mark Mr Burnham’s strongest intervention on the issue, after opponents accused him of reacting slowly to the summer’s extreme heat, droughts and wildfires.

Provisional figures from the Met Office suggested 2026 was the UK’s hottest summer since records began.

The premier also faces pressure from both sides over looming decisions on whether to approve the controversial Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields.

Read More: Burnham recommits to Net Zero targets despite MPs warning phrase has become ‘toxic’ with voters tired of rising bills