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Assured Energy Outlook: Issue 32 – May 2019

Committee on Climate Change: UK should set 2050 net zero greenhouse gas emissions target

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the independent advisory group, has recommended that the UK achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 in a new report published on 2 May.

The CM is a scheme The report, entitled Net Zero: The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming, urged the UK to legislate “as soon as possible” to reach net zero GHG emission by 2050 (a 100% reduction in GHG emissions on 1990 levels), without the use of international carbon credits. Also, the CCC has concluded that since Wales has less opportunity for carbon storage and relatively high agricultural emissions that are hard to reduce, it should aim for a 95% reduction by 2050. Scotland, however, “has greater potential” so should aim to achieve the target by 2045.

The CCC added that the UK has the foundations in place to make significant progress towards achieving an 80% reduction, highlighting that some policy development has begun on building energy efficiency, low carbon heating and electric vehicles. However, while it said the foundations are in place, the CCC also noted that “a net-zero GHG target is not credible unless policy is ramped up significantly”.

It judged the 2040 target for phasing-out the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans as too late. Additionally, carbon capture usage and storage, which the CCC concluded is crucial to the delivery of zero GHG emissions and strategically important to the UK economy, “is yet to get started” in the UK.

It is expected that a net zero GHG target can be met at an annual resource cost of up to 1-2% of GDP to 2050, the same cost as the previous expectation for an 80% reduction from 1990. The CCC stressed that the transition to net zero must be fair and perceived to be fair by workers and energy bill payers.

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