Only one third of emissions reductions required to meet the UK government’s 2030 climate target have credible plans. This the consensus from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) on tackling the climate crisis.
In a new progress report to parliament, the UK government’s key independent advisory body has issued another scathing assessment of the previous Conservative government’s inaction. So now, it has put forward a series of urgent recommendations for the new Labour government to implement to kickstart it’s climate ambitions.
Climate Change Committee: Tory legacy of failure
On Thursday 18 July, the CCC published a new assessment on the UK government’s progress in meeting its climate goals. Specifically, under its national Paris Climate commitments, it has committed to reduce emissions in 2030 by 68% compared to 1990 levels.
However, the CCC has repeatedly exposed the former Tory government over its persistent failures on this. For instance, in June 2023, the committee stated that it was “markedly less” confident that the Conservative government could meet its climate aims than it had been the previous year. With the Tories’ increasing hostility to so-called “net zero” policies, this was a theme that continued.
In March, the CCC followed that damning assessment with another, equally scathing report. Once again, the CCC criticised government inaction – in this instance over its climate adaptation plans. Notably, this set out how the government plans on this were “not working”, are “inadequately funded”, and lack “the frameworks needed to track adaptation and climate risk effectively”.
Now, just six years away from its 2030 deadline, the CCC is once more saying that the country is not on track to hit this target. While it commended a handful of policies under the former Conservative government, overall it concluded that these were “not enough”. The report lambasted the Tories for rolling back a number of its main green policies:
The previous Government gave inconsistent messages on its commitment to the actions needed to reach Net Zero, with cancellations of, and delays and exemptions to, important policies. It claimed to be acting in the long-term interests of the country, but there was no evidence backing the claim that dialling back ambition would reduce costs to citizens. Of particular concern to the Committee were changes to buildings policy, including exempting 20% of households from the phase-out of fossil-fuel boilers by 2035. These could seriously undermine the UK’s ability to reach its targets.
The UK should now be in a phase of rapid investment and delivery. Yet almost all our indicators for low-carbon technology roll-out are off track, with rates needing to significantly ramp up.
Labour now needs to step up to the task
However, even with these in place, the government had been flouting its climate commitments. Because, by its own calculations, the Conservative government had not been on the trajectory for meeting its legally binding carbon budgets anyway. The carbon budget is the limit on emissions that the government has set for each sector. This aims to ensure the country collectively reaches net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Climate Change Act, and its international commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by over two thirds (68%) by 2030.
But as the Canary previously articulated on its latest climate blueprint, ‘the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan’, it was falling far short of this. In April, it introduced this, partially in response to a High Court judgement brought by environmental groups. Specifically, we wrote how the plan:
details how the government intends to deliver its net zero targets. But the document shows that the UK is set to fall short of meeting its legally-binding emissions reductions between 2033 and 2037.
As a result, the UK High Court has ruled in two separate cases that the UK government’s climate plans are unlawful. Coincidentally, the CCC’s new report is in fact two years to the day of the first of these judgements. Then, in May, the court found this new plan was still breaching its legally binding commitments. The case expected the Secretary of State to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. So now, the buck has passed to the new Labour government.
Ten commandments from the Climate Change Committee
In its report, the committee provided ten key recommendations for the new government. These were:
- Make electricity cheaper.
- Reverse recent policy rollbacks.
- Remove planning barriers for heat pumps and electric vehicle charge points.
- Introduce a comprehensive programme for decarbonisation of public sector buildings.
- Effectively design and implement the upcoming renewable energy auctions.
- Accelerate electrification of industrial heat.
- Ramp up tree planting and peatland restoration.
- Finalise business models for large-scale deployment of engineered carbon removals.
- Publish a strategy to support skills, supporting workers in sectors which need to grow or transition.
- Strengthen National Adaptation Programme (NAP3). This is the government’s third plan to meet it’s international climate targets.
The CCC also highlighted that the UK would need to ramp up the roll-out of renewable and low carbon energy and technology. Notably, it said that:
- Annual offshore wind installations must increase by at least three times, onshore wind installations will need to double and solar installations must increase by five times.
- Approximately 10% of existing homes in the UK will need to be heated by a heat pump, compared to only approximately 1% today.
- The market share of new electric cars needs to increase from 16.5% today to nearly 100%.
Committed to climate targets or big business?
Already, insofar as a number of these, the new Labour government appears to be setting itself apart from its anti-net zero predecessor. For one, Labour has made ending new oil and gas licences a key part of its plans. On Wednesday, the King’s Speech detailed a raft of new bills the new government is launching as priority. Its Great British Energy Bill was chief among these as Labour’s climate-focused offering.
This centres round the government’s flagship Great British Energy (GB Energy) plan. Initially, Labour put this forward as a supposed public energy company. However, it was forced to backtrack on this. Crucially, it acknowledged that it was instead ostensibly a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for funnelling public funds to the private renewable sector. In other words, it wasn’t the fully nationalised publicly-owned company the party had been claiming it to be.
Moreover, while on the face of it, the new government seems committed to turning things around on climate, the party has rubbed shoulders with many of the same big polluters the Tory party was previously pandering to.
Ultimately, the CCC has set out in no uncertain terms that the new Labour government must make up for lost time, and fast. However, whether it’s truly committed to this and up to the task remains to be seen.
Feature image via the Canary
