Clean Growth Strategy ‘must be translated urgently into action’

The government’s Clean Growth Strategy, published last October to show how the UK will meet carbon emission reduction targets to 2030 and beyond, does not go far enough – according to a new report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). While the Strategy is ambitious, urgent action is needed to flesh out current plans and proposals and to implement additional measures to meet legally binding carbon targets.

The UK has made good progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in the nearly ten years since the Climate Change Act was passed in 2008. Emissions fell by 42% from 1990 to 2016 – faster than the average rate of reduction in G7 countries. The Clean Growth Strategy commits the government to delivering further action towards meeting the fourth (2023–27) and fifth (2028–32) carbon budgets, on the path to reducing UK emissions by at least 80% in 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

However, significant gaps remain, says the CCC. Even if delivered in full, existing and new policies, including those set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, miss the fourth and fifth carbon budgets by around 10–65mn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – a significant margin.

The Committee’s new report: An independent assessment of the UK’s Clean Growth Strategy: From ambition to action recommends that the government:

•       Urgently firm up policies and proposals in the Strategy. More detail is needed about plans to phase out sales of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040; increase the energy efficiency of our homes by 2035; improve the energy efficiency standards of new buildings; phase out installation of the most polluting fossil fuel heating in homes and businesses off the gas grid; generate 85% of the UK’s electricity from low carbon sources by 2032; improve the energy efficiency of UK businesses and industry by 2030; and deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at scale in the UK in the 2030s. All of these policies, plus others, will have to be delivered in full and on time in order to realise the required emissions savings.
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•       Develop and implement new policies to close the remaining ‘emissions gap’ to the fourth and fifth carbon budgets. There is a particular risk around meeting the emissions target in the fourth carbon budget which begins in just five years’ time. Urgent domestic measures are required and could include: greater near-term improvements in the energy efficiency of UK buildings; steps to ensure a larger proportion of heating from heat networks comes from low carbon sources; action to drive greater uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles and improve energy efficiency of conventional vehicles by 2030; an extension of the UK landfill ban to cover other waste including wood and plastics; higher levels of tree planting; and actions to reduce emissions from agriculture.
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•       Address the risks of under-delivery. Existing and new policies to reduce emissions carry significant delivery risks – the timely completion of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is one example. Risks that cannot be removed now must be actively managed. This is particularly important in the context of the Paris Agreement, where the UK, along with almost every country in the world, has signed up to a deal that will require increasing efforts to reduce emissions in the future.

Although the government has proposed a set of milestones to ensure progress is being made against Clean Growth Strategy objectives, the CCC recommends supplementing these with additional milestones to ensure that the required emissions reductions are delivered in time. The Committee will itself monitor progress in its annual reports to Parliament.

CCC Chairman Lord Deben said: ‘The Clean Growth Strategy is ambitious in its aims to build a thriving low carbon Britain, but ambitions alone are not enough.’