As energy bills head for their biggest rise in four years, climate change featured for seven seconds in Andy Burnham’s conference speech and in none of the 22 standalone online articles analysed.

by Rosie Frost (Journalism Insights Analyst), Alina Sandauer (Content Analyst),  Dr Lissa O’Reilly (Content Analyst), Sam Cardwell (Content Analyst) &  Odyssée Ferrillo (Content Analyst) 

2 October 2026

Andy Burnham’s first Labour Party Conference speech on 29 September covered housing, social care, the NHS, pensions, water, energy and the cost of living. But despite setting out an agenda for energy market reform and new infrastructure, he made only one brief reference to the climate crisis.

The speech came amid concerns about rising household energy bills. Cornwall Insight forecast that the typical annual energy bill would rise by £276 in January, the BBC reported. The following day, EDF chief executive Simone Rossi told the BBC that the UK was “walking into a second significant energy crisis” and urged ministers to approve the Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw gas field.

This analysis examines the full 65-minute speech, 22 standalone online articles about it published by BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and posts specifically about Burnham’s speech published on the Sky News and BBC News live pages on 29 and 30 September. It includes 70 Sky News posts and 92 BBC News posts relating to the speech, rather than every post published on either live page. We looked at how often climate change was mentioned, which topics dominated coverage and whether reporting connected Burnham’s energy pledges to the climate crisis.

What featured in Andy Burnham’s speech?

Energy was a significant part of Burnham’s economic agenda. He described energy costs as “one of the biggest barriers to growth in the UK” and outlined plans to reform the electricity market, expand renewables and nuclear power, and establish a publicly owned Great British Grid.

He also pledged to reduce the link between household electricity prices and the international gas market, with the aim of bringing bills down. Across these announcements, the speech framed energy primarily through affordability, economic growth, infrastructure and public control.

By contrast, the climate crisis received one explicit mention, 22 minutes and 53 seconds into the speech.

“We will be pragmatic in relation to the North Sea as we build a bridge to a clean energy future and face the climate crisis,” Burnham said.

What did online articles focus on?

Online coverage concentrated on pensions, health and social care, and energy.

Of the 22 standalone articles analysed, 10 mentioned pensions, eight covered the NHS, health or social care, and six discussed energy. These categories overlap, as an article could cover more than one topic.

Energy reporting focused mainly on bills, prices and Burnham’s proposed Great British Grid. None of the six articles explicitly connected his energy announcements to climate change.

The articles therefore reported the immediate economic implications of Burnham’s energy pledges without explicitly discussing their relationship to the climate crisis.

What did live blogs focus on?

Live blogs differ from standalone articles, combining breaking news, reaction, polling and developments throughout the day. The two formats are therefore analysed separately. Only posts directly about Andy Burnham’s speech were included in this analysis.

Sky News

Of the 70 Sky News live-blog posts about the speech, two mentioned climate change.

One reported a YouGov poll on public spending priorities, in which 28% of respondents selected the environment and climate change as an area where spending should be cut. The other covered a response from Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who referred to the climate crisis and said the speech contained “a strong hint of more North Sea drilling”.

Neither mention appeared in the post covering Burnham’s energy pledges.

BBC News

The BBC News live page covered the Labour Party Conference across 29 and 30 September, including the build-up to Burnham’s speech, the address itself, political reaction and follow-up interviews.

Across the 92 posts about Burnham’s speech, none mentioned climate change.

Several posts covered rising energy costs. These included EDF’s warning of “a second significant energy crisis” and Burnham’s response that this was not “an overstatement”. The posts linked energy prices to the war in the Middle East and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

Energy therefore appeared primarily as an immediate economic issue. The posts analysed did not explicitly connect Burnham’s energy policy to climate change.

What is the climate context for the UK energy debate?

Burnham’s energy announcements sit within a wider debate about how the UK should balance energy security, affordability and its climate commitments.

The proposed Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw gas field are part of that debate. Industry representatives have called for their approval, while environmental groups and climate experts oppose the projects. In the coverage analysed, this wider climate debate received limited attention in reporting on Burnham’s energy pledges.

The speech also followed a summer of extreme heat. The Met Office provisionally identified summer 2026 as the UK’s hottest on record. Meanwhile, an Office for National Statistics survey found that 62% of adults in Great Britain considered climate change and the environment important issues in August, up from 53% in June.

The separation was not universal across the conference. For example, in her speech the previous day, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh explicitly connected high energy bills with exposure to global fossil fuel markets and argued that clean domestic energy was an answer to both affordability and climate change.

These figures provide context for the coverage analysis, although they do not establish how much climate coverage audiences expected or wanted.

What did audiences learn?

Burnham’s speech set out proposals on energy prices, market reform, renewables, nuclear power and grid infrastructure. Yet the climate crisis received one brief explicit mention in the address, and none of the 22 standalone articles analysed connected his energy pledges to climate change.

The live blog coverage showed a similar pattern. Climate references appeared in two Sky News posts, both in the context of a poll or political reaction, while none of the 92 BBC News live page posts about the speech mentioned climate change.

Across the coverage analysed, energy was predominantly presented as an immediate economic issue, particularly through household bills and prices. On the BBC live page, the conflict in the Middle East and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz provided an additional frame. Its relationship to climate change was rarely made explicit.

The findings concern one political speech and a defined set of news coverage. They do not establish a pattern across UK political journalism more broadly, but show that climate change was rarely made explicit in reporting on a major set of energy policy announcements.

Audiences therefore encountered Burnham’s energy agenda principally as a story about bills, affordability and economic policy, rather than climate change.

Methodology

This analysis covers reporting on the speech published on 29 and 30 September 2026.

This includes 22 standalone online articles about the speech from BBC, ITV and Channel 4, 70 posts about the speech on Sky News’ running politics live blog, and 92 posts about the speech on the BBC News live page.

Standalone articles were identified using the search terms “Andy Burnham”, “Prime Minister” and “Labour conference”.

Standalone articles were included where Burnham’s conference speech or announcements made in the speech formed a substantive part of the article.

In both live blogs, posts on other speakers and other political stories were excluded.

Articles and posts were counted as mentioning climate change if they included an explicit reference to climate change or the climate crisis.

The speech was reviewed in full using the video and transcript, with the duration of the explicit climate reference timed from the video.