Mind the gap: UK progress on tackling climate change
‘The willingness to set emissions targets of genuine ambition contrasts with a reluctance to implement the realistic policies necessary to achieve them’
Committee on Climate Change
The results are in, and they make for uncomfortable reading. On 24th June the independent UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) released important progress reports that set out how the UK government was progressing on reducing emissions and adapting to climate change.
The verdict? Ambitions are high, delivery is low.
Launching the reports CCC Chair Lord Deben said ‘The government has made some historic promises…the problem is there is very little action.‘ While ambitions and commitments are rising, the CCC say, they are not backed up by the detailed policies and financial support to make them happen.
Making this case, the CCC released two beefy progress reports on 24th June as well as a series of joint recommendations for the government:
Here is a quick summary of some of the headlines:
Progress on reducing emissions: commitments
The government is commended for significant, powerful commitments. The 2008 UK Climate Change Act remains an example of a strong climate legal framework for many around the world. The government has also made the ‘historic’ commitment to net zero by 2050, and then backed that up with the NDC commitment to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030. Many commitments are ‘aligned with the path to Net Zero’ (e.g. 40 GW offshore wind by 2030, phasing out petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030).
Yet these commitments alone are not enough. The CCC notes that,
‘gaps remain in the Government’s stated ambitions (e.g. on recommendations to change diets in society to aim to eat less meat and dairy, aviation demand, waste, low-carbon heat networks), while some announcements fall short of what is likely to be needed (e.g. on peatlands, heat pumps, carbon capture and storage).’
The table below shows how government commitments to reduce emissions between 2025 and 2035 square up to those the CCC says are needed:
Committee on Climate Change, Progress on Reducing Emissions Report 2021Policies
The report highlights a stark gap between high ambition and a lack of detailed policies to achieve them. The CCC notes that, ‘only one-fifth of the emissions savings for the Sixth Carbon Budget having policies that are ‘potentially on track’ for full delivery (e.g. renewable electricity generation)’. To be fair to the government the reports highlight that progress has been made in some areas and other policies are due to come out soon. Recently released policies include:
The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution
National Infrastructure Strategy - The Plan allocated initial funding including a £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio
Green Jobs Taskforce
The Energy White Paper
The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy
The North Sea Transition Deal
The Peat and Trees Action Plans
The Nature for Climate Fund
Other publications that have been promised but not yet delivered:
Treasury Net Zero Review
The Heat and Buildings Strategy
The Transport Decarbonisation Plan
Net Zero Aviation Strategy
The Hydrogen Strategy
The Biomass Strategy
National Food Strategy
Supporting people
An area the CCC emphasise is the need for greater public support and engagement, support for skills for green jobs, and support for a just transition (this is an area we have covered in our recent event - Climate Change and Your Career). The recent 6th Carbon Budget (now enshrined in UK law) made it clear that we cannot rely on technologies alone, net zero will require significant behavioural change. How this is managed, and who pays the bill, remains a real political flashpoint.
Progress on Adapting to Climate Change
The second CCC progress report outlines the UK’s progress on adapting to climate change. Adaptation sometimes seems the poor relation to mitigation; maybe it seems less exciting to cautiously prepare flood defences rather than build snazzy electric cars. But adaptation is crucial, as recent record temperatures in Canada and the Pacific North West brutally remind us, the climate is changing fast and we will have to adapt to its affects whilst also taking steps to reduce emissions. This point was made by a member of the CCC - Professor Piers Forster - at our recent Engineering for the Energy Transition event; he pointed out that even new technologies such as floating wind would need to be resilient against the climate changes that were already expected to happen. In the UK this means warmer and wetter winters, increased flash flooding, drier and hotter summers and continuing sea level rise. On adaptation the CCC message is stark:
‘The UK does not yet have a vision for successful adaptation to climate change, nor measurable targets to assess progress. Not one of the 34 priority areas assessed in this year’s progress report on adaptation is yet demonstrating strong progress in adapting to climate risk. Policies are being developed without sufficient recognition of the need to adapt to the changing climate. This undermines their goals, locks in climate risks, and stores up costs for the future.’
The table below summarises the Committee’s verdict on the UK government’s progress towards managing the risks from climate change as well as the quality of the plans in place to do so:
Committee on Climate Change, Progress on Adapting to Climate Change, 2021 These are critical reports, pushing and prodding the government towards more robust action. Many governments are resistant to this kind of pressure. But at COP26 and beyond we are in no doubt that the framework of robust advice provided by an independent Committee on Climate Change (established under the Climate Change Act of 2008 to report to the UK parliament and the parliaments of Wales and Scotland), is a strength, not a weakness.
2021 is a big year for UK climate action. The UK is set to host COP26 in November and still has time to back up ambitious commitments with detailed policies. But these reports show there is a long way to go before this is the case. As the CCC writes,
‘These lessons can shape a successful COP26 summit in November. With strong climate plans at home, the UK Presidency can have global influence. Our message to Government is simple: act quickly – be bold and decisive. Your moment has arrived.’
Watch launch of the progress reports on 24th June 2021 here
Watch CCC Chief Executive Chris Stark present the CCC’s path to net zero in the UK here
Read this twitter thread by Chris Stark, strongly challenging the view that net zero will be ‘ruinously expensive’