UK’s Climate Change Watchdog Warns Clean Growth Strategy “Does Not Go Far Enough”

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has warned that the government’s Clean Growth Strategy, though ambitious, does not go far enough and that urgent action and additional measures are necessary in order to meet the country’s carbon targets.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) was formed in 2008 in order to advise the UK government on emissions targets, the progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and preparing for climate change. The Committee published its latest report this week, An independent assessment of the UK’s Clean Growth Strategy: From ambition to action, which warns the UK government that its much-heralded and ambitious Clean Growth Strategy “does not go far enough” and that “Urgent action is needed to flesh out current plans and proposals, and supplement them with additional measures, to meet the UK’s legally-binding carbon targets in the 2020s and 2030s.”

Although good progress has been made — reducing emissions by 42% between 1990 to 2016 — and the Clean Growth Strategy seeks to commit the country to a pathway that sees it meeting its fourth and fifth carbon budgets, and reducing UK emissions by at least 80% by 2050, the Committee notes that “significant gaps still remain.” Specifically, it warns that “Even if delivered in full, existing and new policies, including those set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, miss the fourth and fifth carbon budgets by around 10-65 MtCO₂e — a significant margin.”

“The Clean Growth Strategy is ambitious in its aims to build a thriving low-carbon Britain but ambitions alone are not enough,” said CCC Chairman, Lord Deben. “As it stands, the Strategy does not deliver enough action to meet the UK’s emissions targets in the 2020s and 2030s. The Government’s policies and proposals will need to be firmed up as a matter of urgency — and supplemented with additional measures — if the UK is to deliver on its legal commitments and secure its position as an international climate change leader.”The Committee highlighted the need for more detail about several of the plans enshrined in the Clean Growth Strategy. These include plans to phase out the sale of diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2050; plans to increase the energy efficiency of homes by 2035; improving the energy efficiency standards of new buildings; generating 85% of the UK’s electricity from low-carbon sources by 2032; and more. “All of these policies, amongst other actions, will have to be delivered in full and on time in order to realise the required emissions savings,” the CCC explains.

Additionally, however, new policies must be developed and implemented if the country is to close the remaining “emissions gap” between the existing plans in the Clean Growth Strategy and the reality of the fourth and fifth carbon budgets. The CCC points to the fourth carbon budget as being the most risky, as it begins in just five years time (2023-27). The Committee not only warns that “Urgent domestic measures are required” but also lays out several potential ideas, including greater immediate improvements for the energy efficiency of UK buildings, steps to improve the uptake of electric vehicles, and higher levels of tree planting and actions to reduce emissions from the country’s agriculture industry.

There is also significant risk of under-delivery, and risks that cannot be removed must be immediately and actively managed.