UK failing to meet net zero targets, government’s own climate watchdog warns

The government’s own climate watchdog has said it is losing confidence in the UK’s ability to reach net zero after a slew of failed targets and “missed” opportunities.

In a “damning assessment” released on Wednesday, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), led by Tory peer Lord Deben, said government departments had ignored key recommendations and were being “too slow” to act.

“In a crucial period for delivering progress, key departments did not deliver on recommendations made by the committee last year,” it said.

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Labour described the CCC’s findings as “by some distance the most damning indictment of a government since the climate change committee was established in 2008” – while the Tory chair of parliament’s environmental audit committee said it was “concerning reading”.

Lord Deben, the committee’s chair, warned that ministers were squandering opportunities to take climate action “more cheaply and more easily” and urged government to “regroup”.

The committee warned:

Seven priority recommendations made to the business department by the committee last year remain unachieved, while Defra and the communities department “failed to achieve any of the priority recommendations made by the committee in 2022”, the CCC said.

Recommendations that have been ignored since last year include action to insulate homes, a review of environmental taxation, and a strategy to decarbonise electricity.

The CCC is also concerned with ministers’ failure to set emissions standards for oil and gas drilling and to set a strategy to decarbonise heavy industry.

The government’s support for new oil and gas sites and approval of 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”, the committee added.

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Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretary, said the report “exposes the catastrophic negligence shown by this government” and said inaction had “left Britain with higher bills, fewer good jobs, our energy security weakened, and the climate emergency unaddressed”.

Greenpeace said there was “almost no progress in this progress report”, describing it as a “pitiful catalogue of Rishi Sunak’s climate failures”, while Friends of the Earth called for a “street-by-street insulation programme” before the winter.

“The CCC’s latest report makes for concerning reading and should serve as a wake-up call to ministers,” said Philip Dunne, the Conservative MP who chairs parliament’s environmental audit committee.

“While the government has indicated the ‘what’ it intends to deliver, there remain gaps in the ‘how’ to achieve through policy levers, leaving stakeholders at a loss to judge whether the UK is properly on track to meet its net zero commitments.”

Mr Dunne said the government needed to focus less on “snappy, soundbite intent” and said it was “far from being on track to meet the net zero targets set for this decade let alone for the next decades on the path to net zero by 2050”.

“Quick wins ranging from allowing more onshore wind and solar, reviewing planning rules around grid development, insulating homes and clear policy to create the green jobs of the future are just a few initiatives that can deliver real, tangible benefits,” he said.

Lord Deben urged the government “to regroup on net zero and commit to bolder delivery”.

“The lesson of my 10 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,” he said.

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“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.”

Chris Stark, the CCC’s chief executive, added: “There are no secrets for net zero any longer, we know how to do it.

“Right across the board we have well-worked-through strategies for how to cut carbon emissions to zero in most areas and for those sectors that we can't get to absolute zero, we have enough capacity in the natural world and through more engineered solutions to take carbon out of the atmosphere.

“Those things take time. They need to put policies in place now that would steer us towards that future. That’s what we're not seeing at the pace that’s required.”

Rebecca Newsom, head of politics for Greenpeace UK, said: “The same government that promised to deliver the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth is now turbocharging fossil fuel expansion while actively blocking renewables and neglecting home insulation, public transport and an ageing power grid.

“Sunak is snubbing the solutions that can give us lower bills, warmer homes and a safer climate, while cheerleading for the oil giants making billions from climate destruction and people's hardship. Whose side is he on?”

Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, added: “Today’s progress report is a damning assessment of the government’s new carbon reduction strategy. Its own advisors say there are now only credible plans for less than a quarter of the emissions cuts needed to meet the UK’s legally binding climate targets - an alarming backwards step from last year when just 39 per cent of plans were deemed fit for purpose.”

A government spokesperson said: “The UK is cutting emissions faster than any other G7 country and attracted billions of investment into renewables, which now account for 40 per cent of our electricity.

“In the last year alone, we have confirmed the first state backing of a nuclear project in over 30 years and invested billions to kick-start new industries like carbon capture and floating offshore wind.”