2050 net zero target requires stronger leadership

A new report has warned that stronger leadership and co-ordination from the Prime Minister is needed if the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050 is to be credible.

Net zero: How government can meet its climate change target, published by the Institute for Government, claims that, over a year on from adopting the target, the UK has yet to confront the scale of the task ahead.

The IfG says that meeting the commitment is a more difficult challenge than responding to the coronavirus crisis or getting Brexit done, and will require transformations in every sector of the UK economy, sustained investment over three decades and substantial changes to everyone’s lives.  

However, a lack of co-ordinated policies, constant changes of direction, a failure to gain public consent for measures and too little engineering expertise and delivery capability has left the UK well off track to meet its target. Additionally, the absence of a comprehensive plan for achieving net zero has deterred private sector investment and left people unsure of how to act.

Polling suggests two-thirds of people have not heard of net zero, despite the fact that it will mean changing the way they heat their homes, the cars they drive and what they eat.

Therefore, it is recommenced that the government should build on parliament’s climate assembly initiative and level with the public on the changes net zero will require. Furthermore, the IfG calls on government to publish a clear plan setting out, sector by sector, how emissions reductions will be achieved and when decisions will be made where technology is uncertain.

Matthew Pennycook, Labour’s Shadow Climate Change Minister, responded: “This report lays bare the Government’s failure to put the country on a path to net zero emissions. If Ministers were determined to end the UK’s contribution to global heating by mid-century they would have a clear roadmap to achieve that goal, it would be pursued relentlessly from the centre, the institutional architecture would be put in place to coordinate and drive progress across all departments, and emissions reduction would be woven throughout government policy. Until this government gives emissions reduction the status it requires and acts accordingly, the UK is destined to remain off track for the net zero target, legislated for just over a year ago.”

 The report recommends that the government should: take responsibility for net zero out of BEIS, which lacks the clout to develop and implement the necessary plan, and create a new net zero unit in the Cabinet Office with a senior Cabinet Office minister given responsibility for net zero; ensure that the Treasury makes net zero a big theme of the spending review and produces a tax strategy to support net zero; build on parliament’s climate assembly initiative to maintain public support for action; create a climate change cadre, with science and engineering expertise at its core, within the civil service; build on the successful model of the Olympic Delivery Authority to ensure big changes like housing retrofit and the switch to electric vehicles happen smoothly; and support the creation of a dedicated parliamentary net zero committee to hold the government to account on progress in reducing emissions.