The Climate Change Committee has “markedly less” confidence that the UK will reach its 2030 net zero goals that it had a year ago.
In its latest report to parliament, the committee, the UK government’s independent adviser on tackling climate change, said “a key opportunity to push a faster pace of progress has been missed”.
The committee’s chair, Lord Deben, better known to many in the industry as former environment secretary John Gummer, said: “There is a worrying hesitancy by ministers to lead the country to the next stage of net zero commitments.”
In the opening statement to his final report as the committee’s chair, Deben wrote : “The true test of leadership is delivery. And here, I am more worried. The commitment of Government to act has waned since our COP26 Presidency. There is hesitation to commit fully to the key pledges. This will not win the fight.”
He added that ministers needed to “regroup on net zero and commit to bolder delivery”, adding that “this is a period when pace must be prioritised over perfection”.
“Even in these times of extraordinary fossil fuel prices, government has been too slow to embrace cleaner, cheaper alternatives and too keen to support new production of coal, oil and gas,” he said.
BPF assistant director Rob Wall said the report “pulls no punches”.
And rightly so, he added. “The need to accelerate action to decarbonise our homes and buildings is more urgent than ever.”
The report follows the publication of the government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan in March, which was meant to provide greater transparency on how it is progressing its plans. The government was “cajoled” to publish the plan by a High Court ruling, Deben pointed out, but ministers “seem less willing to put that programme at the
centre of their stated aims”.
The CCC said: “Despite over 3,000 pages of new detail, the Climate Change Committee’s confidence in the UK meeting its goals from 2030 onwards is now markedly less than it was in our previous assessment a year ago.”
It added that while UK greenhouse gas emissions have so far fallen by 46% from 1990 levels, this is far below the commitment made at COP26 to reduce them by 68% by 2030. The UK has just seven years, the CCC said, to quadruple the rate of emissions reductions outside the electricity supply sector.
“Time is now very short to achieve this change of pace,” it said. While “glimmers” of a net zero transition could be seen in a number of areas, “the scale up of action overall is worryingly slow”.
The CCC was also critical of the fact that ministers at the newly formed Department of Energy Security had failed to deliver on seven key recommendations made by the committee last year. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had also “failed to achieve any of the priority recommendations made by the committee in 2022”.
It added that “rapid reform to planning is necessary” to provide “essential upgrades to the electricity grid” as well as other net zero infrastructure. However, this was still being “stymied by restrictive planning rules”.
In total the committee made 300 recommendations, 55 of which directly relate to the built environment.
It recommended, again, that “the planning system should have an overarching requirement to ensure planning decisions give full regard to net zero”, a recommendation made repeatedly to ministers but not acted upon.
Although “essential reforms have progressed“ on changing land use, ministers needed to urgently introduce a new framework for land use change, with the committee calling for the framework to be published within the next two months. Rates of tree planting needed to double to reach the 30,000 hectare target, while peatland restoration must “step up” by “a factor of five”.
Opportunities for a more rapid deployment of onshore wind and solar had been “missed”, while the ambition to install 600,000 heat pumps by 2028 had so far achieved “around one-ninth of this” target. It pointed out that “installation rates of energy efficiency measures fell further in 2022”.
It added that the UK had “sent confusing signals” to the global community on its climate priorities, undermining the stance taken during the COP26 presidency by supporting new oil and gas supplies and giving consent to a new coal mine in Cumbria.
It said support for decarbonised industry was “lacking”, despite “a new era of global competition”.
Deben said: “It would be a terrible error if we in Britain hesitate just as the rest of the world wakes up to the opportunity of Net Zero.”
In other areas, where the government was making positive noises, such as in decarbonised steel production and the electrification of industry, there was “no clear policy” for delivery.
The CCC concluded: “The government continues to place their reliance on technological solutions that have not been deployed at scale, in preference to more straightforward encouragement of people to reduce high-carbon activities. The committee has again flagged the risks of a policy programme that amongst other things is too slow to plant trees and roll-out heat pumps.”
The CCC’s report echoes findings by the BPF and JLL, Wall said. “The lack of policy and regulatory certainty is a real barrier, with 9 out of 10 industry leaders telling us they do not believe existing Government policy will deliver a net zero property sector by 2050.”
He pointed out that the industry has been waiting “for over two years” for clarity on new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES). “Without this, property owners are unable to plan and invest in energy efficiency improvements with any degree of confidence,” he said.
“Our recent research with JLL also highlights the need for a national retrofit programme, covering both residential and commercial buildings, and for targeted financial incentives,” Wall said. “Measures such as the zero rating of VAT on residential repairs and maintenance, and reforming the business rates and capital allowances systems, will be key to unlocking investment and speeding the transition to a net zero real estate industry.”
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
