The latest progress report from the Climate Change Committee makes grim reading on progress towards net zero. Government inertia and reliance on old ways of thinking are to blame. Andrew Warren, Chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation discusses the report in the July issue of Energy in Buildings & Industry.
Has the UK wandered off the net zero path?
Hopes of the UK Government ever meeting its domestic and international climate targets have “worsened” over the past year., according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC).Its latest progress report is the most outspoken in a series of annual updates , in which the official watchdog has repeatedly admonished the government for failing to take sufficient action needed to reach its net-zero goals.
It has come in the wake of a High Court ruling that forced the Government to provide a far more detailed explanation of how it intended to achieve its legally binding targets. This resulted in publication of its 2.900 page-long “Carbon Budget Delivery Plan” being issued this March. However, rather than setting the nation on a convincing course to meet these goals, the government’s new plan has given the CCC “markedly” less confidence in the entire UK net-zero trajectory.
“Credible” policies in place
Last year, the CCC reckoned there were “credible” policies in place to make at best two-fifths of the emissions cuts needed over the next decade. Now, just one-fifth of those cuts are covered. Instead, it estimates that existing “credible” climate policies will see emissions at best flatline – with only nine out of 50 key indicators currently “on track”.
Lord Deben, who stepped down this month as the CCC’s chair after a decade in the role, said the lesson he had learned from his time at the Committee “is that early action benefits the people of this country, and helps us to meet the challenges of the coming decades more cheaply and more easily.
“Yet, 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. “There is a worrying hesitancy by Ministers to lead the country to the next stage of net zero commitments.”
The Conservative peer and former Environment Secretary warned that too many voices in the government were still “stuck in the old ways of thinking”, as he urged Ministers to “regroup and commit to bolder delivery.” He said “This is a period when pace must be prioritised over perfection,” citing the need to rapidly accelerate decarbonisation programmes, rather than get bogged down in unnecessary debates that delay crucial decisions.
Status as leader slipping
The country’s status as a climate leader is slipping, the CCC argues, driven by a number of key factors including a “waning” commitment to act since the UK’s presidency of the COP26 international climate change conference in 2021 ended, and “hesitation” over key parts of government strategy.
The government’s response to the fossil fuel price crisis – which provided the backdrop for the 2022 progress report – did not embrace the “rapid steps that could have been taken to reduce energy demand and grow renewable generation”, the CCC has noted.
Chris Stark, the CCC’s CEO, said there remained few examples of “low-hanging fruit” left in the drive to decarbonise. But that efforts to reduce demand – for business and household energy, air travel, private car use, and carbon intensive food, products and services, for example – should be playing a far larger role in quickly accelerating the urgent decarbonisation required at relatively low cost.
However, he warned that “inertia” from policymakers meant the government has set out relatively few demand-side decarbonisation plans – a lack of action that risks seeing the UK left behind in the global race to attract green investment.
This summary was endorsed by Philip Dunne, the Conservative MP who chairs the Environmental Audit Committee: He warned “Unless ambitious policy direction is given now, the government risks the unravelling of the last few years of climate leadership, which was spurred on by the UK’s hosting of COP26 in Glasgow and its landmark agreements”.
For instance, “fewer homes were insulated last year under the government-backed schemes than the year before, despite soaring energy bills and a cost-of-living crisis. “ The CCC has regularly drawn attention to a 90% drop in the number of homes being insulated over the past decade., which continue to be way below the “”necessary levels”
Urgent progress is needed: throughout the buildings sector. “Since 2010 progress has stalled, with no further substantive reductions in emissions.” The CCC is highlighting the urgent need for “significant” policies and programmes to underpin the delivery of low-carbon heat and energy efficiency. Given that 45% of total energy usage is in buildings, that means that improvement levels will need to quadruple during this decade.
Zero-carbon homes
The government should undertake a “rapid and forceful” pursuit of zero-carbon new-build homes, energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings, and low-carbon heat networks. Beyond residential buildings, the CCC also highlights the need for a stable, long-term funding approach for offices and commercial premises. “There are no convincing plans to decarbonise commercial buildings,” the progress report notes, with far more action needed to drive improvements across the sector. The failure to keep to the timetable to ensure minimum Energy Performance Certificates standards of B in such buildings, particularly those leased out, remains damaging.
In its 2022 report, the CCC made 14 recommendations to Government in this sector Of these, just one has been met – a mandate for fossil fuel boiler phase-outs. As. Lord Deben told the BBC Radio 4 flagship Today programme on his retirement, “if we don’t act now, this world will not be the world we would want anybody to live in.”
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