Climate advisor says show people the money
Climate Change Committee (CCC) releases first assessment of the current UK Government’s progress on reducing emissions.
The independent, statutory body finds that government policies to reduce emissions have improved since last year.
It suggests that, with more action, the UK can hit its legally-binding climate targets and improve energy security for households and businesses across the UK.
Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Professor Piers Forster, notes a reduction in emissions by over 50% since 1990.
He goes on to say, ‘the government needs to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills. Given increasingly unstable geopolitics, it is also important to get off unreliable fossil fuels and onto home-grown, renewable energy as quickly as possible.’
Making electricity cheaper will help people feel the benefits of the transition and speed up the uptake of clean electric technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
The report recommends:
- Reducing the cost of electricity
- Provide confidence and certainty to scale heat-pump deployment in existing buildings
- Implement regulations to ensure that new homes are not connected to the gas grid
- Introduce a comprehensive programme to decarbonise public sector buildings
- Accelerate the electrification of industrial heat
- Effectively deliver rapid expansion of the low-carbon electricity system
- Put policies and incentives in place to ramp up tree planting and peatland restoration
- Develop policy to ensure that the aviation industry takes responsibility for its emissions reaching net-zero by 2050
- Finalise business models for engineered removals
- Publish a strategy to support skills
Read the Committee’s report on progress in reducing emissions.
