A new report from the Climate Change Committee has delivered a damning verdict as to the UK government’s efforts to reach net zero emissions.
In 2019, the UK became among the first countries to set legally binding targets to completely slash its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.
However, the annual progress report says that a “key opportunity to push a faster pace of progress has been missed” and criticizes the government’s pace of taking meaningful climate action.
Furthermore, the report also questions some of the measures the UK government has taken to achieve net zero emissions, such as relying on carbon capture, which the report refers to as ‘untested technology’.
Other measures are criticized for being insufficient, such as planting trees and decarbonizing households with the help of heat pumps.
“Glimmers of the net zero transition can be seen in growing sales of new electric cars and the continued deployment of renewable (power) capacity, but the scale up of action overall is worryingly slow,” the report says.
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On the other hand, the CCC also expressed concern regarding the UK’s ‘confusing signals’ to the rest of the world with its support for new oil and gas drilling projects and its approval of a new coal mine in Cumbria.
Committee chairman Lord Deben was deeply dissatisfied with the results of his last progress report, as he listed some of the major failures of the government to maintain its role in spearheading the transition to greener practices.
“We’ve slipped behind. The government has lost the leadership role it did have and carried through in the Glasgow COP26 summit,” Lord Deben said.
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