Time running out for UK to meet net zero commitments – Climate Change Committee

The UK is failing to meet its emissions reduction targets and time is running out to achieve the change of pace required for net zero commitments.

This was the sentiment expressed by the Climate Change Committee in response to the UK Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP), aimed at providing greater transparency on its Net Zero plans.

In a statement, the Climate Change Committee stated: “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”.

According to the report:

• UK greenhouse gas emissions have so far fallen 46% from 1990 levels. At COP26, a stretching 2030 commitment was made to reduce them by 68%. In only seven years, the recent rate of annual emissions reduction outside the electricity supply sector must therefore quadruple.
• Despite growing sales of new electric cars and the continued deployment of renewable capacity, the scale up of action overall is worryingly slow.
• The Government relies too heavily on technological solutions that have not been deployed at scale
• Policy programmes are too slow with regard to planting trees and rolling out heat pumps.

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Lord Deben, chairman of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “…Government has been too slow to embrace cleaner, cheaper alternatives and too keen to support new production of coal, oil and gas. There is a worrying hesitancy by Ministers to lead the country to the next stage of Net Zero commitments.”

According to the CCC, key departments did not deliver on recommendations made by the Committee last year.

Furthermore, the UK has sent confusing signals on its climate priorities to the global community. This was seen by support for new oil and gas, and the green light for a new coal mine in Cumbria.

The CCC also calls for greater support to decarbonise industry in order to remain competitive. A lack of clear policy and incentives is stalling progress, as well as unclear implementation paths.

Ruth Herbert, Chief Executive at the CCSA, said: “This report makes clear that the UK must get moving and accelerate deployment of CCUS to have any chance of reaching our net zero targets. The CCC spells out that there is currently no clear policy for UK industries to decarbonise. CCUS offers an opportunity to decarbonise heavy industry, while protecting and creating jobs.

“We urgently need a CCUS deployment plan for the whole of the UK. We’re still waiting for contracts to be signed for the first eight carbon capture projects, and for ministers to confirm the next steps on expanding the clusters on the east coast and north west of England, as well as a timeline for selecting further clusters in other parts of the UK, which is necessary to meet the Government’s ambition of four CCUS clusters by 2030.”

Recommendations

The CCC offers the following recommendations to address some of the hindrances facing the UK government:

• Rapid reform to planning is necessary ensuring planning decisions give full regard to Net Zero.
• Step up rates of tree planting and peatland restoration and introduce a new framework for land use change.
• Accelerate deployment of electric heating and pressing ahead with low-regret energy infrastructure decisions.
• Addressing the growing list of UK airports proposing to expand capacity, counter to the Committee’s advice. A UK-wide capacity management framework is needed to manage these decisions. No airport expansions should proceed until this is in place.

David Whitehouse, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, said OEUK supported the CCC’s net zero targets but the report’s proposals for achieving it would put the UK at increased risk of a new energy crisis.

He said: “The CCC report’s findings are paradoxical. On the one hand it warns that the UK is being far too slow at building the infrastructure vital for generating low carbon electricity. That clearly means we will need other sources of energy to tide us over while we build those new wind farms, solar farms and nuclear power stations.

“But the same report also supports a ban on exploring UK waters for new sources of gas and oil, so depriving the UK of that resource too. There are 283 oil and gas fields in UK waters, but many are ageing and 180 will be shut down by 2030. If we don’t replace them the UK will become up to 80% reliant on imports. We need new fields just to maintain production and so minimise imports.

Whitehouse suggests that these policies combined put the UK at risk of creating an internal energy crisis that will be felt far into the future. He added that the ideal would be to achieve net zero targets without “destabilising the UK’s energy security and economy.”

Originally published on Power Engineering International.