Labour must ramp up renewable energy to meet 2030 climate vows, says watchdog

Shotwick in Wales, the UK’s largest solar farm. Labour has already approved three giant solar farms, but the climate change committee says installations must increase fivefold. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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.