Rebecca Speare-Cole,
PA sustainability reporter
Fri 25 October 2024
UK greenhouse gas emissions should be cut by at least 81% by 2035 as part of global efforts to tackle climate change, Government advisers have said.
The Government is preparing to unveil plans for cutting emissions by 2035, under the global Paris Agreement which commits countries to take action on curbing temperature rises to prevent the worst impacts of warming.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has recommended the UK commit to cutting emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels by the middle of the 2030s, under its Paris action plan – known as a “nationally determined contribution” or NDC.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, the independent advisory committee said the target is “ambitious, deliverable and consistent” with the emission reductions required for the country to meet its own legally binding cap on the amount of carbon it can emit between 2033 to 2037.
“It is informed by the latest science, technological developments, and the UK’s national circumstances,” it read.
Fri 25 October 2024
UK greenhouse gas emissions should be cut by at least 81% by 2035 as part of global efforts to tackle climate change, Government advisers have said.
The Government is preparing to unveil plans for cutting emissions by 2035, under the global Paris Agreement which commits countries to take action on curbing temperature rises to prevent the worst impacts of warming.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has recommended the UK commit to cutting emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels by the middle of the 2030s, under its Paris action plan – known as a “nationally determined contribution” or NDC.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, the independent advisory committee said the target is “ambitious, deliverable and consistent” with the emission reductions required for the country to meet its own legally binding cap on the amount of carbon it can emit between 2033 to 2037.
“It is informed by the latest science, technological developments, and the UK’s national circumstances,” it read.
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband asked the committee for guidance (Ben Whitley/PA)
It comes after Mr Miliband asked the committee earlier this year for guidance on setting the UK’s next NDC emissions target as the Cop29 summit approaches in Azerbaijan in November.
Governments are legally bound to submit new NDCs every five years, outlining how they plan to cut emissions over the next decade.
Countries are due to table their new proposals for 2025 to 2035 ahead of Cop30 in Brazil next December.
In 2020, the then-Conservative government set a goal of 68% emission cuts by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, which was in line with the CCC’s advice at the time.
But the committee recently warned that the UK is off track to meet its 2030 climate targets, with only around one third of the emissions reductions required covered by credible plans – mostly in the electricity supply and surface transport sectors.
In its letter to the Energy Secretary, it said: “Setting a target is not enough. The UK must back up its international commitments through actions here at home.
“We welcome the actions already taken by the Government on renewable electricity, energy efficiency in rented homes, and carbon capture and storage.
“We need to see further urgent action to speed up deployment of low-carbon solutions such as electric vehicles, heat pumps and tree planting.”
The Paris Agreement commits countries to keeping temperature rises “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels, and pursuing efforts to limit them to 1.5C, seen as the threshold beyond which the worst impacts of climate change will be felt.
To meet the 1.5C target, the world’s carbon emissions must fall to net zero by 2050, with significant cuts in pollution and any remaining emissions offset by planting trees or using technology to capture carbon.
Professor Piers Forster said: “With climate damages already felt around the world, targeting an 81% emissions reduction by 2035 sets the right level of ambition.
“Our analysis shows this can be achieved in a way that benefits jobs and the economy, provided we hit the country’s 2030 target – set in line with the CCC’s advice in 2020.
“The technologies needed to achieve it are available, at a competitive price, today.”
He added: “We need to see the Government’s commitment to climate reflected in the upcoming Budget.
“I have no doubt that the United Kingdom can once again be a leader on the international stage – in both deeds and words.”
Environmental groups have suggested the Government go further than the CCC recommendations, including calls for UK plans to include international aviation and shipping (IAS) emissions, which can be excluded in line with the UN convention.
Dr Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: “The Climate Change Committee has given ministers a useful benchmark for climate action but they may want to aim higher to show true global leadership and take full responsibility for the UK’s historic role as a major carbon polluter.
“Actions speak louder than words, and true leadership means the government must also set out tangible plans to deliver on its 2035 target.”
Isabella O’Dowd, WWF’s head of climate policy said: “We urge the UK government to show global leadership by going further and adopt climate targets for international aviation and shipping.
“Acting now will revitalise the UK economy, increase our energy security and support a just transition for all sectors.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Britain is back in the business of climate leadership because the only way to protect current generations in the UK is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, and the only way to protect our children and future generations is by leading global climate action.
“We are grateful to the Climate Change Committee for this expert advice, which we will consider carefully before we announce an ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution target at COP29 to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.”
Campaigners call for steeper cuts to UK greenhouse gas emissions
Fiona Harvey
Environment editor
Fri 25 October 2024
Campaigners want the government to go further than the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations in order to spur innovation and demonstrate global leadership.
Fri 25 October 2024
Campaigners want the government to go further than the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations in order to spur innovation and demonstrate global leadership.
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
Climate campaigners have urged ministers to make steeper cuts in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions after the government’s statutory adviser on the climate gave its verdict on new targets.
The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government, has written to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, to advise cuts of 81% in the UK’s emissions, compared with 1990 levels, by 2035, if emissions from aviation and shipping are excluded.
Miliband now faces the choice of whether to follow the committee’s advice in setting the UK’s new international commitment under the Paris agreement at a forthcoming UN climate summit.
A cut of 81% as an international target would be broadly in line with the UK’s existing domestic carbon budgets for the 2030s, which are also set with advice from the CCC and are intended to deliver net zero emissions by 2050.
But campaigners urged the government to go further in order to demonstrate global leadership and spur innovation and a low-carbon economy. Mike Childs, the head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said: “With climate change spiralling dangerously out of control, the recommended 81% cut should be seen as the very minimum carbon reduction target the UK government should commit to. Ramping up ambition to make even deeper cuts in practice would show real leadership in global efforts to avert the worst of climate breakdown.”
Catherine Pettengell, the executive director of Climate Action Network UK, said: “[This] should be the floor, not the ceiling, of the UK’s ambition and action. A more ambitious and fair target could be achieved if the UK brings its full economic and political will to the table.”
Meeting the new target will be a stretch. The UK is far away from meeting the international target in place of a 68% reductions in emissions by 2030, which was set by Boris Johnson before the UK hosted the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, according to analysis by Friends of the Earth.
Doug Parr, the policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: “True leadership means the government must also set out tangible plans to deliver on its 2035 target.” He called for the fulfilment of Labour’s promise to end new oil and gas licences, at least triple renewables and double energy efficiency rates by 2030, and support workers to transition away from polluting industries.
Another key question for Miliband, in drawing up the UK’s international target – known as a nationally determined contribution, or NDC, under the Paris agreement – is how to account for emissions from international aviation and shipping to and from the UK.
These emissions are now included in the UK’s domestic carbon budgets, but were not explicitly in the 2015 Paris agreement, and previous international pacts, because of the difficulty of apportioning the emissions to particular countries. Some campaigners argue that aviation and shipping are implicitly covered by the Paris agreement, but there is disagreement over this and most countries exclude them from their NDCs.
Jonathan Hood, the UK sustainable shipping manager at the Transport & Environment campaigning group, said they should be included. “Passing responsibility for shipping emissions to the ineffective International Maritime Organisation and excluding them from the NDC makes no sense – particularly when the UK has already accepted legal responsibility for international shipping and aviation emissions by including them in the sixth carbon budget,” he said.
If aviation and shipping are included, in effect the headline target for an NDC would be likely to equate to a cut of about 78% by 2035, in line with the UK’s carbon budgets.
New NDCs are not due to be submitted to the UN until next February, but Keir Starmer promised that the UK’s would be unveiled early, at the forthcoming Cop29 UN climate summit, taking place in Azerbaijan from 11 November.
The prime minister told other leaders at the UN general assembly in New York last month: “The UK will lead again, tackling climate change, at home and internationally and restoring our commitment to international development. The threat of climate change is existential and it is happening in the here and now. So we have reset Britain’s approach.”
Delivering the NDC early is intended to spur other major economies to do the same. However, the big question mark hanging over Cop29 is whether Donald Trump will win the US presidential election, which takes place just five days before. Trump has vowed to dismantle the green industrial stimulus put in place by Joe Biden, boost fossil fuels, and withdraw the US from the Paris agreement.
The UK met the first three five-year carbon budgets set under the Climate Change Act of 2008, but current and future budgets look harder to meet. This carbon budget runs to 2027, and will be assessed at the end of this parliament in 2029. The fifth and sixth carbon budgets call for a cut of 58% in emissions by 2032, and 78% by 2037. The seventh carbon budget will be set by the CCC next year.
Robert Jenrick, the Conservative leadership candidate, has pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act, and his rival in the contest, Kemi Badenoch, is also hostile to the UK’s net zero ambitions.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Britain is back in the business of climate leadership because the only way to protect current generations in the UK is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, and the only way to protect our children and future generations is by leading global climate action.
Climate campaigners have urged ministers to make steeper cuts in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions after the government’s statutory adviser on the climate gave its verdict on new targets.
The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government, has written to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, to advise cuts of 81% in the UK’s emissions, compared with 1990 levels, by 2035, if emissions from aviation and shipping are excluded.
Miliband now faces the choice of whether to follow the committee’s advice in setting the UK’s new international commitment under the Paris agreement at a forthcoming UN climate summit.
A cut of 81% as an international target would be broadly in line with the UK’s existing domestic carbon budgets for the 2030s, which are also set with advice from the CCC and are intended to deliver net zero emissions by 2050.
But campaigners urged the government to go further in order to demonstrate global leadership and spur innovation and a low-carbon economy. Mike Childs, the head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said: “With climate change spiralling dangerously out of control, the recommended 81% cut should be seen as the very minimum carbon reduction target the UK government should commit to. Ramping up ambition to make even deeper cuts in practice would show real leadership in global efforts to avert the worst of climate breakdown.”
Catherine Pettengell, the executive director of Climate Action Network UK, said: “[This] should be the floor, not the ceiling, of the UK’s ambition and action. A more ambitious and fair target could be achieved if the UK brings its full economic and political will to the table.”
Meeting the new target will be a stretch. The UK is far away from meeting the international target in place of a 68% reductions in emissions by 2030, which was set by Boris Johnson before the UK hosted the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, according to analysis by Friends of the Earth.
Doug Parr, the policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: “True leadership means the government must also set out tangible plans to deliver on its 2035 target.” He called for the fulfilment of Labour’s promise to end new oil and gas licences, at least triple renewables and double energy efficiency rates by 2030, and support workers to transition away from polluting industries.
Another key question for Miliband, in drawing up the UK’s international target – known as a nationally determined contribution, or NDC, under the Paris agreement – is how to account for emissions from international aviation and shipping to and from the UK.
These emissions are now included in the UK’s domestic carbon budgets, but were not explicitly in the 2015 Paris agreement, and previous international pacts, because of the difficulty of apportioning the emissions to particular countries. Some campaigners argue that aviation and shipping are implicitly covered by the Paris agreement, but there is disagreement over this and most countries exclude them from their NDCs.
Jonathan Hood, the UK sustainable shipping manager at the Transport & Environment campaigning group, said they should be included. “Passing responsibility for shipping emissions to the ineffective International Maritime Organisation and excluding them from the NDC makes no sense – particularly when the UK has already accepted legal responsibility for international shipping and aviation emissions by including them in the sixth carbon budget,” he said.
If aviation and shipping are included, in effect the headline target for an NDC would be likely to equate to a cut of about 78% by 2035, in line with the UK’s carbon budgets.
New NDCs are not due to be submitted to the UN until next February, but Keir Starmer promised that the UK’s would be unveiled early, at the forthcoming Cop29 UN climate summit, taking place in Azerbaijan from 11 November.
The prime minister told other leaders at the UN general assembly in New York last month: “The UK will lead again, tackling climate change, at home and internationally and restoring our commitment to international development. The threat of climate change is existential and it is happening in the here and now. So we have reset Britain’s approach.”
Delivering the NDC early is intended to spur other major economies to do the same. However, the big question mark hanging over Cop29 is whether Donald Trump will win the US presidential election, which takes place just five days before. Trump has vowed to dismantle the green industrial stimulus put in place by Joe Biden, boost fossil fuels, and withdraw the US from the Paris agreement.
The UK met the first three five-year carbon budgets set under the Climate Change Act of 2008, but current and future budgets look harder to meet. This carbon budget runs to 2027, and will be assessed at the end of this parliament in 2029. The fifth and sixth carbon budgets call for a cut of 58% in emissions by 2032, and 78% by 2037. The seventh carbon budget will be set by the CCC next year.
Robert Jenrick, the Conservative leadership candidate, has pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act, and his rival in the contest, Kemi Badenoch, is also hostile to the UK’s net zero ambitions.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Britain is back in the business of climate leadership because the only way to protect current generations in the UK is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, and the only way to protect our children and future generations is by leading global climate action.
Britain's climate advisers urge steeper emissions cut target for 2035
Reuters
Fri 25 October 2024
A seagull flies past the Big Ben clock on afoggy
“We are grateful to the Climate Change Committee for this expert advice, which we will consider carefully before we announce an ambitious nationally determined contribution target at Cop29 to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.”
Reuters
Fri 25 October 2024
A seagull flies past the Big Ben clock on a
SMOG day in central London
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), has recommended in a letter to government that it should commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 in its upcoming budget next month.
The new Labour government is expected to announce increases in public spending and taxes in its first budget in 14 years next week.
The emissions cut target recommended by the advisers is higher than the current target of a 78% reduction by 2035 compared with 1990 levels and excludes international aviation and shipping emissions.
However, it would make a credible contribution towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the committee said.
"With climate damages already felt around the world, targeting an 81% emissions reduction by 2035 sets the right level of ambition," said Piers Forster, interim chair of the committee. "Our analysis shows this can be achieved in a way that benefits jobs and the economy, provided we hit the country’s 2030 target - set in line with the CCC’s advice in 2020," he said.
The government needs to set out an updated climate plan and targets for 2035 before a U.N. deadline of February 2025.
In July this year, the CCC said Britain might miss its 2030 emissions reduction target and was off track to meet a longer-term target of net zero emissions by mid-century.
The advice will also form part of the committee's seventh carbon budget plan covering the years 2038-2042 which is due to be published in February next year.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), has recommended in a letter to government that it should commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 in its upcoming budget next month.
The new Labour government is expected to announce increases in public spending and taxes in its first budget in 14 years next week.
The emissions cut target recommended by the advisers is higher than the current target of a 78% reduction by 2035 compared with 1990 levels and excludes international aviation and shipping emissions.
However, it would make a credible contribution towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the committee said.
"With climate damages already felt around the world, targeting an 81% emissions reduction by 2035 sets the right level of ambition," said Piers Forster, interim chair of the committee. "Our analysis shows this can be achieved in a way that benefits jobs and the economy, provided we hit the country’s 2030 target - set in line with the CCC’s advice in 2020," he said.
The government needs to set out an updated climate plan and targets for 2035 before a U.N. deadline of February 2025.
In July this year, the CCC said Britain might miss its 2030 emissions reduction target and was off track to meet a longer-term target of net zero emissions by mid-century.
The advice will also form part of the committee's seventh carbon budget plan covering the years 2038-2042 which is due to be published in February next year.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
“We are grateful to the Climate Change Committee for this expert advice, which we will consider carefully before we announce an ambitious nationally determined contribution target at Cop29 to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.”
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