UK energy and Net Zero policies under attack

08 April 2023

June 2022
In a lengthy and detailed report, the UK's Climate Change Committee chaired by Lord Deben found major failures in delivery programmes towards the achievement of the UK’s climate goals.

The current strategy will not deliver Net Zero. Credible Government plans exist for over a third of the UK’s required emissions reductions to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget in the mid-2030s; with a fair wind we will manage another quarter; and over a third cannot be relied on to deliver the necessary emissions reductions.
 

July 2022
On 18 July 2022, in a case brought jointly by Client Earth, Friends of the Earth and the Good Law Project, the High Court ruled that the UK Government’s net zero strategy was inadequate and concluded that it breached the Climate Change Act 2008, and needed to be strengthened.

Mr Justice Holgate  ordered the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) to prepare a report explaining how the policies outlined in the net zero strategy would contribute towards emissions reductions, and to present it to parliament by April 2023.
Client Earth report  19 July 2022
The Guardian 18 July 2022  Damien Gayle

December 2022
The Scottish Government has not escaped criticism.  The latest assessment of Scotland’s progress by the Climate Change Committee concluded that the Scottish Government lacks a clear delivery plan and has not offered a coherent explanation for how its policies will achieve Scotland’s bold emissions reduction targets –

Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee said:
“In 2019, the Scottish Parliament committed the country to some of the most stretching climate goals in the world, but they are increasingly at risk without real progress towards the milestones that Scottish Ministers have previously laid out. One year ago, I called for more clarity and transparency on Scottish climate policy and delivery. That plea remains unanswered.”
CCC news report

January 2023
The review of UK net Zero strategy commissioned by BEIS was published and debated in both Houses of Parliament.
House of Commons Library report

March 2023
New UK plan to reach net zero goal faces criticism
BBC News    30 March 2023       Esme Stallard

The government has unveiled a new net zero plan which has been met with intense criticism from experts and environmental groups.
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The government was forced to publish this "Powering up Britain" strategy after the High Court judged last July that its current plan was not detailed enough to show how the UK would meet its goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Academics and green groups are unconvinced it will make enough difference.

UK Government 'Powering Up Britain' policy documents

Detailed comment from
The Guardian   30 March 2023  Fiona Harvey and Jillian Ambrose

All this is overshadowed by the latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change, published in March, which warned that the time available for governments and corporations to take serious action to mitigate thw effects of climate change was rapidly running out.