The new Labour government must oversee a massive ramping up of renewable energy generation in this parliament or the UK will breach its international obligations under the Paris agreement, the government’s climate watchdog has said.
The Conservative government left the country drastically off track to meet its international commitments, despite setting the carbon-cutting target before hosting the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, the Committee on Climate Change found in its most recent annual report.
In a damning verdict on the Tories, and Rishi Sunak’s tenure in particular, the CCC found that the policies that Labour inherited would result in only about a third of the emissions cuts necessary to reach the UK’s Paris agreement target of cutting carbon by 68% by 2030.
The report, compiled by scientists and experts, said the last government “signalled a slowing of pace and reversed or delayed key policies … gave inconsistent messages on its commitment to the actions needed to reach net zero, with cancellations of, and delays and exemptions to, important policies. It claimed to be acting in the long-term interests of the country but there was no evidence backing the claim that dialling back ambition would reduce costs to citizens.”
Keir Starmer’s government has already begun to take steps to cut the UK’s emissions further by lifting a de facto ban on new onshore wind turbines in England, greenlighting new solar farms and dropping the legal defence of a proposed new coalmine.
Labour plans to force landlords to improve the energy efficiency of the homes they rent, and to reinstate the 2030 phase-out date for sales of new petrol and diesel-driven cars, which Sunak postponed to 2035.
The CCC, in its annual progress report to parliament, published on Thursday, said much more would be needed. By 2030, offshore wind energy generation must triple, onshore wind must double and solar installations must increase by five times, it said. The use of heat pumps must rise at least 10-fold, from only 1% of households today.
Danny Gross, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “While the new government has made a positive start on climate action, it urgently needs to ramp up ambition on cutting emissions from homes and buildings, transport and agriculture. Every government department will need to swing behind policies for a fair, green transition to a zero-carbon economy.”
Labour can take heart from the committee’s finding that many of the policies needed will reduce the cost of living. Changing the way electricity is billed to consumers, by untying the charges from the gas price, would make electricity cheaper and heat pumps and electric vehicles more attractive. As the cost of low-carbon technology is falling, ramping up homegrown renewable energy is “the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil fuel markets”, the report found.
There should also be a comprehensive programme to decarbonise public buildings, such as schools and hospitals, according to the report, and a suite of policies to encourage industry to move from fossil fuels to electricity for the heat needed in industrial processes, from food processing to glass-making.
More trees are needed, as is the restoration of peatlands, and workers will have to be retrained across a variety of sectors. The previous government’s plans to develop carbon capture and storage will need to be brought forward, in some form.
The new government must also remove the exemption of 20% of households from the phase-out of fossil fuel boilers in 2035, the CCC advised. Labour has not yet committed to reversing this exemption.
Piers Forster, the interim chair of the CCC, said: “This government has got off to a very good start. If they can take on the 10 recommendations we made, I absolutely do think it is still possible to get to the 2030 target … That can make everyone once more feel positive about net zero.”
In the king’s speech on Wednesday, Labour laid out plans for nine bills that would have a significant impact on the climate and environment, including setting up a new nationally owned energy company; renationalising the railways and bringing bus services within local authority control; promoting sustainable aviation fuel; and a planning reform bill that will make it easier to build solar farms, low-carbon housing and the other infrastructure needed to reach the legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: “This report lays bare the failures of the previous government. On a vast range of policy areas it says we are off track to meet our targets – and our country is paying the price with higher bills and energy insecurity.
“The good news is that this report confirms that a clean energy future is the best way to make Britain energy independent, cut bills, create good jobs and tackle the climate crisis. That is why the government is wasting no time in delivering our mission … to make Britain a clean energy superpower.”
