The UK government came under attack from its own climate advisers for the slow pace in meeting its “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions target and backtracking on fossil fuel commitments. Government backing for new oil and coal, airport expansion plans and slow progress on heat pumps show that the UK has lost its leadership on climate issues.
In its annual report, the Climate Change Committee described government efforts to scale up climate action as “worryingly slow”. It was “markedly” less confident than a year ago that the UK would reach its targets for cutting carbon emissions.
In the report’s foreword, chair Lord Deben says: “In targets, the UK is indeed a world leader. However, this progress report reveals that, despite important achievements in renewable energy and electric vehicles, the government is failing in much of its implementation. Sharply rising fuel costs should have given added impetus to improving energy efficiency, yet the necessary programmes are not in place.” He criticised the building of new homes that do not meet minimum standards of efficiency and will require significant retrofitting. “Not only are we waiting for the promised Future Homes Standard but there is as yet no sign of the changes in the planning system necessary to reflect Britain’s legal obligations for climate mitigation,” Lord Deben said.
Lord Deben’s second and final term as chair of the committee ended last week. However, he remains a member of the environment advisory group of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. A Catholic, he is a huge fan of Laudato Si’, the environment encyclical, and has long urged Catholics to follow the inspirational leadership of Pope Francis.
Bishop John Arnold of Salford, lead bishop on the environment, told The Tablet this week that Lord Deben’s voice “remains of great value to the group despite his standing down from the Parliamentary Climate Change Committee”. He added, “The June heat record is a clear indication that climate change is directly affecting the UK and the bishops’ conference will continue to lobby the government on various environmental issues.”
Lord Deben, a former Conservative environment minister, has been particularly critical of the government's “further unnecessary investment in fossil fuels”. He has described the decision to approve the UK's first new deep coal mine in 30 years in Cumbria last December as “total nonsense”. Lord Deben has also been damning about plans for a major new oilfield off the coast of Scotland saying, "How can we ask other nations not to expand the fossil fuel production if we start doing it ourselves?” The committee report said the switch to renewable power needs to be ramped up, industry needs more help to decarbonise and there needs to be an increase in the numbers of trees planted and the speed of peatland restoration.
Lord Deben told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a latter last week: “Our children will not forgive us if we leave them a world of withering heat and devastating storms where sea level rises and extreme temperatures force millions to move because their countries are no longer habitable. None of us can avoid our responsibility. Delay is not an option.”
At the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow in 2021 then prime minister Boris Johnson vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 68 percent on 1990 levels by the end of the decade. The committee report warns, “Continued delays in policy development and implementation” meant reaching them was “increasingly challenging”. The chair of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Alok Sharma, agreed the UK is at risk of losing what he called its “international reputation and influence on climate”. He said last week that the UK risked falling behind without a response to initiatives like the US's vast subsidies for green industries. “Resting on our laurels is definitely not the answer industry is seeking,” he said, in one of the sharpest criticisms the Conservative MP has made of the UK government’s climate policy.
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