UK Climate Progress Runs Off Track as Target Dates Draw Closer

(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s chances of achieving its climate goals are getting slimmer, just as the country should be accelerating efforts to hit its targets. 

That’s the conclusion of the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory panel set up by the government. Officials are moving too slowly to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, making it increasingly unlikely those aims will be achieved, the group said in a report to Parliament.

“Britain was leading the world,” said CCC Chairman John Selwyn Gummer. “It’s lost the leadership role that it did have and carried through with aplomb at the Glasgow summit.”

As host of United Nations climate talks in Glasgow almost two years ago, the UK agreed to curb emissions by 68% from 1990 levels by 2030. At the end of last year, Britain had achieved a 46% cut, according to the report. 

The UK is aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050 and has enacted policies to accelerate the development of renewable energy and promote the use of electric vehicles. At the same time, the government has faced pressure to help lower energy prices, a key driver behind Britain’s cost-of-living crisis.

“We can be proud of the UK’s record as a world-leader on net zero,” a government spokesperson said. “We are going far beyond other countries and delivering tangible progress whilst bringing down energy bills with hundreds of pounds coming off bills from next month.”

Out of 50 areas the committee analyzed in its report — covering topics including surface transport, buildings and energy supply — half were classified as either significantly or slightly off track. Nine that were found to be on track, while others were deemed too early to judge progress or lacking in data.

Outside of the power sector, emissions cuts need to roughly quadruple in the next seven years in order to meet 2030 climate goals, according to the CCC. Within electricity supply, the UK’s development of wind farms isn’t moving fast enough and the growth of solar facilities is “significantly off track,” even as European countries deploy record amounts of the technology to cut gas use. 

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The race to scale up investments enough to reach net-zero targets could become more difficult as the Bank of England and other central banks increase interest rates, making it more expensive to borrow money. 

“The cost of financing those capital assets is a really critical issue and therefore increases in the base rate naturally make this a bigger challenge,” said Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC. 

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