CCC warns UK on weakening future emissions targets

The independent advisory Climate Change Committee (CCC) has warned the UK government that it must not carry forward any "surplus" — from overachieving on previous goals — to future emissions reduction targets.

The UK overachieved on its third carbon budget — covering 2018-22 — the government said earlier this month. It overachieved by 391mn t/CO2 equivalent (CO2e), or 15pc of the total, on a budget set to 2.544bn t/CO2e. This left the net carbon account at 2.153bn t/CO2e, excluding international aviation and shipping. A carbon budget is a cap on emissions over a certain period.

The CCC today advised the government "unequivocally that surplus emissions must not be carried forward to loosen later carbon budgets", it wrote.

"The UK is already substantially off track for 2030 and the government must resist the temptation to take their foot off the accelerator", CCC interim chair Piers Forster said. The UK must rapidly speed up decarbonisation in transport and buildings sectors, the CCC said.

UK decarbonisation has been driven by "good progress" on cutting emissions within the power sector, including a "faster than expected phase-out of coal", the CCC said. But most of the surplus from the third carbon budget was down to "external factors", including the Covid-19 pandemic, the CCC noted.

The UK also overshot on emissions cuts on the first and second carbon budgets, covering 2008-12 and 2013-17, respectively. The government sets carbon budgets based on advice from the CCC — "provided on the basis that there would be no carry-forward of surplus", the committee noted.

The cross-party environmental audit committee called earlier this month for more parliamentary scrutiny on carbon budgets.

By Georgia Gratton