UK’s Net Zero target ‘still within reach’

The Government’s climate change advisor believes the UK’s Net Zero target is still within reach, but has urged action to cut electricity prices to speed up progress.

The Climate Change Committee said lower prices would help consumers feel the benefits of the shift to low carbon and accelerate the uptake of clean electric technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. 

Its latest report found positive progress on key areas this year, including growth in new car electric vehicle market share, heat pump installations and plans to remove planning barriers on renewable deployment.

However, interim chair Professor Piers Forster said the Government needs to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills.

Commenting on the report, Bill Esterson MP, Chair of the Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, said it wasn’t clear that the mechanisms to bring costs down that are being proposed by Government or the CCC are “sufficient, or sustainable”.

“Reducing the policy costs on electricity is an easy win that my Committee has also recommended but the bulk of the cost, and the part still fully exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices and at the mercy of geopolitics, is the wholesale price.”