The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) have warned that urgent government action is required to prevent the UK from missing its legally binding carbon targets.
They said that 'vague ambitions' including the banning of new petrol cars by 2040 must be put into solid plans if targets are to be met. Concerns were also voiced over significant risks to existing government projects such as the Hinkley Point nuclear plant.
The Chair of the CCC, Lord Deben, did deliver some praise, albeit with words of caution, to the government regarding the publication of the government's clean growth strategy back in October. He said: ''There has been a very fundamental change of stance but that, of course, doesn’t mean there is not a very great deal more to do. There is a real pressure and urgency. We have given every benefit of the doubt. But even if they do all the things they say they are going to do, to the maximum, there will still be a gap.''
An independent assessment of the government's clean growth strategy conducted by the CCC analysed whether the planned actions put the UK on course to meet its target carbon cuts in 2025 and 2030, and if it offers the most cost-effective path to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. The CCC concluded that although the UK has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 42% since 1990 and is near to phasing out the use of coal, the UK is not on track to meet future targets.
The assessment highlighted that a number of pledges made by the government have very little or no detail about how they will actually be delivered.
One such pledge is to ensure that by 2035 all homes have a good level of energy efficiency. On this point the CCC criticised large housebuilding companies for failing to do enough. Lord Deben commented: ''If Persimmon had spent the £110m bonus it has given to its chief executive on the 18,000 houses it has built this last year, it could have saved very significantly the energy bills of everybody who bought a house and contributed significantly to emissions reduction.''
The CCC also stressed the essential need to roll out carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants by 2030. They commented: ''We cannot underline more strongly that without CCS, meeting our statutory targets will cost a great deal more. CCS is essential.''
A £1 billion programme into the development of CCS was abolished in 2015 by former chancellor George Osborne. Since then only £100 million has been pledged into the development of CCS technology, an amount the CCC says does not reflect the importance of CCS.
Further gaps in government policy identified by the CCC include a clear and decisive plan to increase the sales of electric cars to the governments goal so that 40-70% of all UK cars will be electric by 2030, and 100% by 2035, and the need for a further 70,000 hectares of trees to be planted by 2025.
There were also warnings raised over reliance on new nuclear plants for low-carbon electricity. ''Nuclear has a history of not delivering on time or on budget. Any new nuclear plants after Hinkley would have to come in at a much, much reduced cost given the very low cost offshore wind now offers'', CCC officials said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) responded to the CCC's comments: ''The UK has reduced emissions per person faster than any other G7 nation and our CGS is the next ambitious milestone. But we have always said it is only the start of a process.''
