Climate change: UK heading for failure on climate goals - report

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The government's plans to limit climate change are going to fail, according to its advisers.

The Climate Change Committee says that unless policies are dramatically improved, the government will need to try another tack.

If previous insulation policies had not been scrapped, households would be saving money on their bills.

The environment department was accused of using "magical thinking" to cut emissions from farms.

The UK won't achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050 unless housing and farming are tackled.

The committee advises on climate policies. The report reviews the progress of the MPs.

The government's renewable energy programme will save people money on their energy bills, according to it.

Even though it says more charge points and more electric vans are needed, it supports the promotion of electric cars.

The government stated that the UK had driven down emissions faster than any other G7 country over the past three decades, and that it had clear plans to go further.

Around 40% of the UK's power comes from cleaner and cheaper renewable sources.

"This is backed up by £6 billion of funding to make our homes and buildings more energy efficient, planting up to 30,000 hectares of new trees a year and more electric cars than ever before, decarbonising our cars and vans faster than any other developed country."

The committee agrees that carbon-cutting policies are in place for most sectors of the economy, but it doesn't think they'll work.

It warns that ministers need a back-up plan, and that they may want to avoid asking the public to change their behavior by eating less meat and flying less.

Lord Deben said that recent climate extremes were very worrying. He said that the public should be proud of the UK setting best targets.

We are not moving fast enough to avoid real catastrophe.

There is a lack of sensible policy on home insulation, according to Lord Deben. He said it was scandalous that house-builders were still building new homes.

There are credible plans for over a third of the emissions reductions needed by the mid-2030s. The UK will be able to manage another quarter, but there is a high risk that over a third of plans won't work.

It wants the Treasury to explain how the costs and benefits of the low-carbon transition will be shared. Tax policy and planning legislation need to be changed.

The report is three times longer than usual. The committee has sought evidence on the ground of the low-carbon transition in action instead of just relying on reported data.

If old coal stations were used to keep the lights on, there would only be a small increase in emissions.

The government's ambitions on nuclear power would be difficult to achieve.

The government's progress on climate policy is grinding to a standstill, according to Ami McCarthy.

The sharper and more costly shift will be if the government drags its feet on greening our homes, delivering renewable energy and moving our food production system away from meat. The time is running out.

The engineering firm considers the CCC to be overoptimistic. The UK needs to build 12-16GW of new generation capacity over the next two decades. A dash to decarbonise power by 2035 may no longer be a credible ambition for the UK.

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