The UK Government’s new Net Zero Strategy is an achievable, affordable plan that will bring jobs, investment and wider benefits to the UK, a review by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has concluded.
The strategy is also a strong example to bring to the COP26 summit of how to follow climate change targets with action, the CCC also highlighted.
CCC chairman Lord Deben said: “The Net Zero Strategy is a genuine step forward.
“The UK was the first major industrialised nation to set Net Zero into law – now we have policy plans to get us there. As we welcome world leaders to COP26 in Glasgow, that is an important statement.”
Deben added that until now, only the CCC had offered a path to net zero.
“Now we have the Government’s own plan for meeting the UK’s emissions targets. Ministers have made the big decisions – to decarbonise the power sector by 2035, to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles, to back heat pumps for homes.
“And they have proposed policies to do it.”
Deben said the CCC “will hold the Government’s feet to the fire, as we are required to under the Climate Change Act. This is the UK’s climate governance working as it should.”
The plans in the Net Zero Strategy are broadly aligned to those set out by the CCC in its advice to Government on the Sixth Carbon Budget in December 2020.
Overall, the strategy’s ambitions align to the UK’s emissions targets of Net Zero by 2050 and a 78% reduction from 1990 to 2035 (63% relative to 2019).
At its core is an ambition for a fully decarbonised power sector by 2035, with electrification, supported by low-carbon hydrogen.
The Government has proposed deployment levels of low-carbon options (e.g. offshore wind, low-carbon hydrogen production, carbon capture, electric cars, heat pumps, energy efficiency, tree planting) across the economy for the next 15 years that are similar to the Committee’s proposals and together would deliver the carbon budgets.
The Government presents credible proposals for driving delivery and scaling up private investment in almost every area of the economy, including contract auctions for renewable power, the committee highlighted.
While it acknowledged the Treasury Net Zero Review endorsed the case for net zero and strengthened understanding of many of the major policy challenges the CCC also concluded that these were not followed through into decisions and it remains unclear how the treasury will use the tax system to support the transition to Net Zero, or how it will fill the fiscal gap implied by falling fuel duties.
“These gaps should now be addressed and the strong proposals in the Net Zero Strategy must move through consultation and policy development into implementation as quickly as possible.
“The CCC will monitor progress on delivery closely and report its findings in its annual report to Parliament next summer,” the committee stated in its review.