The public will not have to change their lives “radically” for the UK to meet its near-term emissions reduction targets, MPs have been told.
The Government’s climate goals include a 68% reduction by 2030 and an 81% reduction by 2035 on 1990 levels, which are both in line with advice from its independent advisers on the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
Speaking at the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee on Wednesday, Emma Pinchbeck, CCC chief executive, said the UK can “absolutely” meet these goals but it currently remains off track.
Ms Pinchbeck said: “It involves changes. People are going to have to choose different technologies at the point they have to or want to replace their boiler or at the point they’re getting a new vehicle, because the big emissions chunk is in heat and transport.
“But we’re not talking about people radically changing the way they live their lives.”
She added that other areas of lifestyle change, such as diet and travel, are not in the scope of the 2035 goal but will come into later plans on the road to net zero by 2050.
But it came as Dr Emily Nurse, CCC head of net zero, told the committee that the UK is not on track to meet the 2030 and 2035 targets across most areas, such as surface transport and low carbon heating.
It follows the CCC’s latest annual update to Parliament published in December showed that “credible plans” to cut emissions – those funded and with a delivery timeline in place – exist for only 32% of reductions needed to meet the UK’s 2030 target.
Plans for 14% of the required emissions reductions are either completely missing or inadequate, it said.
“We’re not going fast enough on delivery,” Dr Nurse said, adding that backsteps from the previous Tory government on net zero policies caused inconsistent messaging for the private sector.
Ms Pinchbeck told the MPs that the current Government has made “really positive concrete moves”, such as unveiling the clean power action plan, changes to planning, and pledging carbon capture funding, but added that the committee will hold the Government to account on delivery in the coming months.
Quizzed on whether it is possible for the UK to meet its targets, Ms Pinchbeck said: “The market is with us in terms of delivery, and I’ve seen the private sector go far faster than anyone thought was possible.
“I think the question mark over whether we actually deliver is how fast Government moves to remove the regulatory and policy barriers in the way of that market and to help consumers access these technologies.”
She said grid connection reforms, planning reforms and making electricity as cheap as possible so people can see the benefit of adopting these technologies and the benefit of investing in them on the supply side “are hugely important”.
“From our point of view, which is to access the technology availability, access the market conditions, work out the physics of the thing, yeah you can absolutely do it,” she said.
