The Worryingly Slow Energy Transition in the UK: Urgent Actions Needed for Carbon Neutrality

2023-06-27 00:02:29

The pace of the energy transition in the United Kingdom is “worryingly slow”, deplored Tuesday in a report the CCC, the independent body responsible for advising Downing Street on the transition to carbon neutrality.

He calls on the government to take “bolder actions and to make the climate a” priority once more.

The publication of a 3,000-page government plan on the Downing Street strategy, the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, considered disappointing, notably led to a “marked deterioration in the confidence of the Commission on Climate Change (CCC) in the capacity of the United Kingdom to achieve its objectives”.

In a statement on Tuesday, the CCC argues that while the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have so far fallen 46% from 1990 levels, the UK had pledged to cut them by 68% by 2030 at COP26.

“There are only seven years left and the recent annual rate of reduction in emissions, excluding electricity generation, must therefore quadruple”, underlines the CCC.

This report comes as the Court of Auditors of the European Union for its part pointed out on Monday that the ambitious European climate objectives for 2030 have “lead in the wing”, and that “little evidence” proves that the actions and funding provided will be sufficient to achieve them.

In the UK, which is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, “glimmers of energy transition are seen in growing sales of electric vehicles or the deployment of renewables capacity, but ramping up efforts are in the pipeline. worryingly slow together,” according to the CCC.

The government consultancy body believes that the UK government is basing its efforts on “technology solutions which have not yet been deployed on a sufficient scale, rather than encouraging people to reduce their CO2-emitting activities”.

The CCC also criticizes too timid a pace to plant trees, natural carbon sinks, or to deploy heat pumps.

Already at the end of March, the same organization had pointed out that despite the already clearly visible consequences, between temperature records and unprecedented forest fires last summer, including floods, the United Kingdom has not made any effort sufficient to prepare the country to adapt to global warming.

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