UK extends target to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035

If successful, it will take the UK more than three-quarters of the way to reaching net zero by 2050, says the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). 

And, for the first time, this Carbon Budget will incorporate the UK’s share of international emissions from aviation and shipping. 

The government is already working towards its commitment to reduce emissions in 2030 by at least 68% compared to 1990 levels – through the UK’s latest pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement, its ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’. This is the highest reduction target made by a major economy to date, says BEIS. The new target will become enshrined in law by the end of June.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: ‘The UK is leading the world in tackling climate change and today’s announcement means our low carbon future is now in sight. The targets we’ve set ourselves in the sixth Carbon Budget will see us go further and faster than any other major economy to achieve a completely carbon neutral future.’

The UK over-achieved against its first and second Carbon Budgets and is on track to outperform the third Carbon Budget which ends in 2022, says BEIS. This is due to significant cuts in greenhouse gases across the economy and industry, with the UK bringing emissions down 44% overall between 1990 and 2019, and by two-thirds in the power sector. Moreover, the UK continues to break records in renewable electricity generation, which has more than quadrupled since 2010 while low carbon electricity overall accounts for over 50% of total generation. 

Prior to enshrining its net zero commitment in law, the UK had a target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050. Following the sixth Carbon Budget announcement, the government is aiming to achieve almost the same level – 15 years earlier.

Chairman of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben said: ‘The UK’s sixth Carbon Budget is the product of the most comprehensive examination ever undertaken of the path to a fully decarbonised economy. I am delighted that the government has accepted my Committee’s recommendations in full.’

The government also announced that HM Treasury will publish its Net Zero Review in the coming months, setting out how government plans to maximise economic growth opportunities from the net zero transition while ensuring contributions are fair between consumers, businesses and the British taxpayer.

The new 78% target was widely welcomed as both ambitious and essential, although many pointed to the inescapable difference between setting and meeting environmental targets – particularly ambitious ones. 

Speaking for the Royal Academy of Engineering, Professor Nilay Shah welcomed the new target as vital, but added: ‘However, the UK is still not on track to meet even its previous carbon targets [the fourth and fifth Carbon Budgets], and this new goal of 78% emissions reduction by 2035 will not be reached without sweeping energy efficiency measures and ensuring that all government policies actively and coherently contribute to achieving this target.’

Shah concluded: ‘In the run up to COP26, government should publish a detailed and flexible plan for each high-carbon sector of the economy, and account for the connections between them and the social or behavioural basis for change using a systems approach. Engineers from every discipline will design, build, retrofit, operate and make safe the infrastructure and technologies for a decarbonised UK to be fully achieved, and we will play our part to build a net zero UK.’