By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain must end its reliance on fossil fuels, switch to electric vehicles and heat pumps, and eat less meat to reach its 2050 net zero target, the country’s climate change advisers said on Wednesday.
The advice, in the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) seventh carbon budget for 2038-2042, lays bare the challenge of reaching the goal and comes as the government is under pressure to reduce bills after the energy regulator announced a third consecutive quarterly price rise this week.
The CCC said Britain must cut emissions by 87% compared with 1990 levels by 2040 to reach net zero and targets set under the international Paris Climate agreement.
Britain’s GHG emissions fell almost 53% by the end of 2023 on 1990 levels largely due to cuts in the power sector due as renewable electricity grew and coal plants closed.
“Now we need to see action on transport, buildings, industry and farming. This will create opportunities in the economy, tackle climate change, and bring down household bills,” Piers Forster, Interim CCC Chair, said in a statement.
The report, designed to show how the target can be met, recommends 80% of cars on the road by 2040 should be fully electric which would require nearly all new car sales to be electric from 2030.
More than half of homes should also be heated by heat pumps by 2040, up from around 1% now.
Transferring heating and transport to green electricity will require twice as much electricity as today, the report said and need a massive ramp up in renewable power.
The government has made decarbonising the electricity sector a key goal and said it will ultimately lead to lower energy bills and slash the country’s reliance on energy imports.
The CCC said the transition would see savings for households by around 2040 and cut energy bills by some 700 pounds ($883.82) compared with current levels by 2050.
The report recommends making electricity cheaper by removing policy costs from bills, making it easier to install technology like charging points and offering support to install heat pumps.
In the budget average, meat consumption also falls 25% by 2040 and 35% by 2050 compared with 2019 levels.
Meat consumption fell 10% between 2020 and 2022 and the CCC said its modelling reflected a continuation of this trend and expectation of cheaper and tastier meat alternatives.
The report did not examine the impact of expansion at Heathrow or other airports and said aviation emissions should fall 17% by 2040 compared with 2023.
The reduction is based on the industry rolling out sustainable fuel, becoming more efficient, managing demand growth and paying for carbon removal credits to offsets.
Under the Climate Change Act, Britain must show how it will reach legally binding climate targets and set five-yearly carbon budgets 12 years in advance.
The government has adopted the previous six carbon budgets put forward by the CCC.
($1 = 0.7920 pounds)
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale, editing by Ed Osmond)
