Committee on Climate Change & June 2017 report

Committee on Climate Change

https://www.theccc.org.uk/

https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2017-report-to-parliament-meeting-carbon-budgets-closing-the-policy-gap/

2017 Report to Parliament – Meeting Carbon Budgets: Closing the policy gap
Published:
29 June 2017

• UK greenhouse gas emissions are about 42% lower than in 1990, around half way to the 2050 commitment to reduce emissions by at least 80% on 1990 levels

• although good progress has been made to date, that progress is stalling. Since 2012, emissions reductions have been largely confined to the power sector, whilst emissions from transport and building stock are rising

• effective new strategies and policies are urgently needed to ensure emissions continue to fall in line with the commitments agreed by Parliament

This report is the Committee on Climate Change’s ninth annual assessment of UK progress in reducing emissions and meeting carbon budgets.

https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-Report-to-Parliament-Meeting-Carbon-Budgets-Closing-the-policy-gap.pdf

203 page report

Executive summary 

The UK urgently needs new policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Parliament has made commitments and the Government has a legal duty to propose policies to meet them. Despite this, no significant new policy plans have been published in the 11 months since the fifth carbon budget was set. Climate change will not wait while other priorities are addressed: plans must be published without delay, setting out how the Government intends to deliver the budget, which requires a 57% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2030. Recent reductions in emissions should not detract from the urgent need for new policies to bring confidence to investors and to enable future targets to be met. Although UK emissions fell 6% in 2016 and are down 19% since 2012, progress has been dominated by the power sector. Carbon dioxide emissions from transport and buildings rose in 2015 and 2016, while progress in driving emissions reductions in industry and for non-CO2 greenhouse gases has been minimal. Despite promising advances in low-carbon technologies like electric cars and renewable power generation, emissions will not continue to fall without new and strengthened policies, and the fourth and fifth carbon budgets will be missed.