The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has released its first assessment of the current UK government’s progress on reducing emissions.
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The independent, statutory body found that government policies to reduce emissions have improved since last year. It says that with more action, the UK can hit its legally binding climate targets and improve energy security for households and businesses across the UK.
Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Professor Piers Forster, notes a reduction in emissions by over 50% since 1990. He goes on to say, ‘the Government needs to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills. Given increasingly unstable geopolitics, it is also important to get off unreliable fossil fuels and onto homegrown, renewable energy as quickly as possible.’
Making electricity cheaper will help people feel the benefits of the transition and speed up the uptake of clean electric technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
The report recommends:
Reducing the cost of electricity
Provide confidence and certainty to scale heat pump deployment in existing buildings
Implement regulations to ensure that new homes are not connected to the gas grid
Introduce a comprehensive programme to decarbonise public sector buildings
Accelerate the electrification of industrial heat
Effectively deliver rapid expansion of the low-carbon electricity system
Put policies and incentives in place to ramp up tree planting and peatland restoration
Develop policy to ensure that the aviation industry takes responsibility for its emissions reaching Net Zero by 2050
Finalise business models for engineered removals
Publish a strategy to support skills
Read the Committee’s report on progress in reducing emissions.