CIC urges Government to regroup on Net Zero and commit to bolder delivery

The 2023 annual progress assessment report from the Climate Change Committee, the independent organisation set up to advise the UK government on climate issues and monitors progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, has concluded that confidence in the UK meeting its goals from 2030 “is markedly less” than it was a year ago.

While UK greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 46% from 1990 levels. At COP26 in November 2021, a 2030 commitment was made to reduce them by 68%. To reach this In the seven remaining years means that outside the electricity supply sector, the recent rate of annual emissions reduction must quadruple.

CIC says “while glimmers of the Net Zero transition can be seen in the growing sales of new electric cars and the continued deployment of renewable capacity, the scale up of action overall is worryingly slow.”

The Government, says CIC, continues to place reliance on technological solutions that have not been deployed at scale, in preference to more straightforward encouragement of people to reduce high-carbon activities.

Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, said, “The lesson of my ten years at the Climate Change Committee is that early action benefits the people of this country and helps us to meet the challenges of the coming decades more cheaply and more easily.

“Yet, even in these times of extraordinary fossil fuel prices, Government has been too slow to embrace cleaner, cheaper alternatives and too keen to support new production of coal, oil and gas. There is a worrying hesitancy by Ministers to lead the country to the next stage of Net Zero commitments.

“I urge the Government to regroup on Net Zero and commit to bolder delivery. This is a period when pace must be prioritised over perfection.”

In the report CIC says Net Zero must return to top billing and says the UK has sent confusing signals on its climate priorities to the global community. For instance, support for new oil and gas, beyond the immediate increase in gas production demanded by the Ukraine invasion, and the decision to consent a new coal mine in Cumbria have raised global attention and undermined the careful language negotiated by the UK COP26 Presidency in the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Furthermore CIC finds that support is lacking for decarbonised industry in a new era of global competition. This is exemplified by the Government’s approach to decarbonised steel production -- it has high ambitions but no clear policy to deliver it. And wider incentives are also needed for electrification of industry. The recent announcement of up to £20 billion funding for carbon capture and storage is welcome, but detail and implementation of these spending plans is still to come.

The report highlights the need for rapid reform to planning particularly with regard to energy infrastructure. “In a range of areas, the deployment of essential upgrades to the electricity grid and other Net Zero infrastructure is being stymied by restrictive planning rules. The planning system should have an overarching requirement to ensure planning decisions give full regard to Net Zero.”