UK has ‘abandoned’ its position as world climate leader and is in ‘reverse gear’, report warns

The UK has “lost its clear global leadership position on climate action” and has “backtracked on fossil fuel commitments”, a new report has warned.

The Climate Change Committee released its latest report on Wednesday (28 June) criticising the UK for not taking action to grow renewable energy but instead consenting to a new coal mine and supporting new oil and gas production.

The report said the government’s policy development including tree planting and low-carbon heating “continues to be too slow” and is delaying commitments made by the UK at the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow in 2021.

At COP26 then prime minister Boris Johnson vowed to cut emissions by 68% on 1990 levels by the end of the decade but the report warned "continued delays in policy development and implementation" meant reaching this target was "increasingly challenging".

There has been no decision on whether using hydrogen for home heating will be made until 2026, no programme to encourage people to change their high-carbon lifestyles, and no clear policy on how to decarbonise steel production or emissions from other heavy industries.

According to the report, the number of homes receiving energy efficiency improvements under the government’s Energy Company Obligation scheme have more than halved from 383,700 in 2021 to 159,600 in 2022.

Between one to two million homes should be upgraded each year to meet net zero by 2050 but the report says the UK has a “lack of urgency” of achieving its target.

The Committee pointed out that lots of UK airports are planning to expand capacity despite a recommendation by climate experts that there should be no net airport expansion, and transport emissions have remained stubbornly high as the government has “made a political choice” to allow an increase in road traffic instead of encouraging the use of public transport.

Lord Deben, outgoing chair of the CCC, said he is “more worried” about the government’s will and determination to deliver its climate commitments.

He said the commitment of the government “has waned since our COP26 Presidency” and “this will not win the fight”.

“I urge government to find the courage to place climate change once again at the heart of its leadership. It would be a terrible error if we in Britain hesitate just as the rest of the world wakes up to the opportunity of Net Zero,” Lord Deben added.

Luke Murphy, head of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Fair Transition Unit and associate director for energy and climate at the think tank, said the report is “damning” and “makes clear” that the UK has “abandoned its position of climate leadership abroad.”

He said the impacts of these failures will mean “our energy bills are higher, we’re less energy secure, and we’re failing to reap the economic benefits of the transition to net zero.”

He added that the UK is “still stuck in the changing room complaining to the referee about the boots the other runners are wearing” and is “multiplying the problem future leaders will face and leaving an even more damaged environment and economy for younger and future generations."

Stephen Frost, principal research fellow in the fair transition unit at IPPR, said the government is in “reverse gear” and it “must urgently reverse cuts to the active travel budget and commit transformative funding to ‘levelling up’ public transport outside of London.”

The Climate Change Committee’s latest annual progress report is the committee’s 15th since the 2008 Climate Change Act.

The report urges the government to implement a comprehensive delivery mechanism to address degraded peatland and extend current restoration ambition, ensure that funding is set at the correct level to meet the afforestation target of 30,000 hectares per year by 2025, and ensure plans to prohibit fossil fuel boiler replacements in off-gas grid buildings from 2026 are met.

It also demands that no airport expansions should proceed until a UK-wide capacity management framework is in place to annually assess emissions.