Net zero strategy shows UK will miss 2030 emissions cuts target
The UK government has insisted it is still on track to meet its international climate commitments under the Paris agreement, as analysis of its energy plans suggested more drastic policies would be needed to make the required carbon cuts.
Ministers unveiled the UK’s revamped net zero strategy on Thursday, with a raft of documents running to more than 1,000 pages, setting out policies on sectors from biomass to solar power, and from electric vehicles to nuclear reactors. It came as Rishi Sunak headed to Oxfordshire to visit a development facility for nuclear fusion, accompanied by Grant Shapps, the energy and net zero secretary.
The prime minister said: “People should be really proud of the UK’s track record on all of this. If you look at it, we’ve decarbonised faster than any other major economy. Our carbon emissions have been reduced by over 40%, much more than all the other countries that we compete with.”
Shapps later told Sky News: “We all know that electricity can be a big way to decarbonise, but we also know these are big changes. So this is not a sort of rip-out-your-boiler moment. This is a transition over a period of time to get to homes which are heated in a different way and also insulated much better.”
Thegovernment’s own analysis, however, shows that its new policies will only meet 92% of the emissions cuts required and, without further changes, the target will be missed.
At the heart of its strategy is the UK’s legally binding requirement to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and its commitment under the Paris agreement to a plan – called a “nationally determined contribution”, or NDC – to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. The 2030 commitment, boasted of as “world-leading” ahead of the
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