June 29, 2022

expert reaction to the Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report to Parliament

The Climate Change Committee have publish their updated assessment of the latest progress to reduce emissions against the UK’s statutory carbon budgets, including a renewed approach to monitoring progress and new policy advice to Government.

Dr Robin Lamboll, Research Associate in Climate Science and Policy, Imperial College London, said:

“The report shows that the UK may sustain some of the lockdown emissions reduction into the longer term, and gradual progress on reforming our economy means we are likely to meet short-term emissions targets. However it also shows that our current plans are not detailed or robust enough to meet our net zero target in 2050 and that key aspects of our strategy, including basic things like how we heat our homes, are still not adequately supported. In the year of COP26, when we were supposed to lead the world, we have kept walking but not set a good pace.”

Prof Richard Green, Professor of Sustainable Energy Business at Imperial College Business School, said:

“The Committee’s calculations show that households’ energy bills could have been a billion pounds lower this year if the government had not cut spending on energy efficiency after 2012 – the energy you don’t have to use is the cheapest and the most secure source of all.”

Prof Mark Maslin, Professor of Climatology, University College London (UCL), said:

“Setting climate change targets is easy but now the UK Government must actually deliver on its pledges.  But this Government is floundering, with no plan to deal with the cost-of-living crisis by ending our reliance of expensive fossil fuels.

“This report by the CCC asks fundamental questions. Where is the massive expansion of safe secure UK renewable energy?  Where are the programmes and funding to upgrade our housing stock and insulate British homes?  Where are the policies to protect our food security and local biodiversity, while reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions?  The report concludes that the UK is not on track to hit Net Zero emissions by 2050.  The report provides over 300 recommendations for developing win-win policies over the next year, as Government seems unable to move quickly from rhetoric and strategy to implementation and effective policies.”

Dr Ajay Gambhir, Senior Research Fellow at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, said:

“Two things strike me above all: first, that a solid net zero strategy is ineffective without solid policies, which in many areas are sorely lacking; and secondly, demand reduction has to become a central part of the low-carbon transition, through better insulation and energy efficiency measures in homes at this critically expensive time, as well as through incentives to promote healthier, less meat-intensive diets and to reduce demand for flying.  Without these bold and immediate measures, the UK will find itself irretrievably off-track from net zero.”

Declared interests

Prof Mark Maslin has no interests to declare in relation to this quote or the CCC Report.  

Dr Robin Lamboll: “no interests to declare.”

Dr Ajay Gambhir: “no interests to declare.”

For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.