Climate action plan of UK government to reach net zero have come under harsh criticism from its own advisors, who warn that goals are being missed on almost every front in a damning report.
Despite the skyrocketing energy costs and cost of living crisis, the UK government -supported program insulated fewer homes last year compared to the previous year. There hasn’t been much improvement in the transportation sector’s emissions, and there is still no decision on whether to use hydrogen for home heating.
Meanwhile the installation of new wind and solar farms and the upgrading of the electricity grid are still too slow to meet net zero, according to the Committee on Climate Change, which says that the lack of urgency of government and a failure of political leadership means progress has stalled.
“Lost the leadership”
Lord Deben, outgoing chair of the CCC, said the UK had “lost the leadership” on climate action shown at Cop26 in 2021 and done “a number of things” – such as greenlighting a new coal mine and new oil and gasfields in the North Sea – that were “utterly unacceptable”.
He said the committee’s confidence that the government would meet its shorter-term carbon-cutting goals by 2030 was even lower than last year, despite the publication of a new green strategy by ministers. “We’ve slipped behind, and other people have moved ahead,” he said. “This is not a report that suggests satisfactory progress.”
Greenhouse gas emissions have been falling by just under 3% a year, but this will need to double over the next eight years. The committee warned that the UK could no longer expand any of its airports without closures or shrinking of capacity elsewhere but the government seems not to have accepted this.
According to the CCC’s latest annual report, titled “Progress in Reducing UK Emissions: 2023 Report to Parliament,” published on Wednesday, it states that public charging for electric vehicles is more costly than necessary, and the government expects transport emissions to be higher than previously admitted.