Continued delays to the updated climate change plan and further slippage in promised climate policies mean that the Climate Change Committee no longer believes that the Scottish Government will meet its statutory 2030 goal to reduce emissions by 75%. There is no comprehensive strategy for Scotland to decarbonise towards Net Zero. The Scottish Government delayed its draft Climate Change Plan last year despite the 2030 target only being six years away. This has left a significant period without sufficient actions or policies to reach the target; the required acceleration in emissions reduction i ..read more

February 2024 was the warmest on record. In the UK, it was the fourth wettest February ever recorded. Climate change is now bringing major challenges to the UK, but the CCC’s assessment of the Government’s Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) is that it falls far short of what is required. Evidence of the UK’s inadequate response to worsening climate impacts continues to mount. Published in July 2023, NAP3 is the UK Government’s statutory plan to ensure the country is prepared for the effects of climate change. It improves upon previous programmes, but its key failure remains the absence ..read more

Professor Keith Bell who joined the Committee in 2019, has had his contract extended until April 2025 by the UK Government and devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Following five years of service, Professor Bell has agreed to stay on for a period of 12 months. This will allow him to share his expertise until the Committee has delivered its advice on the Seventh Carbon Budget. “The Committee is delighted to keep Keith and his knowledge for a further year. This will be crucial in ensuring our advice, particularly on the power sector can be informed by his expertise ..read more

Under the UK’s Climate Change Act, carbon budgets are the legal targets for UK greenhouse emissions over a five-year period. At the end of a carbon budget, the Climate Change Committee must advise on the carry forward of any ‘surplus’, a facility which can be used to weaken later carbon budgets. The Third Carbon Budget (2018 to 2022) was met with a surplus, assisted by the economy-shrinking effects of the pandemic. Today the Committee has written to Minister Graham Stuart, congratulating the Government for meeting its legal obligations, but advising unequivocally that surplus emissions must no ..read more

2023 was the hottest year on record, with worsening extreme weather events across the world. With global greenhouse gas emissions at an all time high, COP28 took important steps to try to change the direction of travel. For the first time, there was global consensus for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”. The new Framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation has set targets adapting to climate change and the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund was another important step towards building resilient global communities. As a d ..read more

Chris Stark will leave the Climate Change Committee after serving as Chief Executive for the past six years. He has led the organisation since April 2018, and has been the chief climate adviser to Government and Parliament over a period where the UK has substantially extended its climate ambitions, in response to the Committee’s advice. Chris will join the Carbon Trust as Chief Executive later this year. Chris Stark Under Chris’s leadership, the Committee recommended a UK Net Zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Net Zero was put into law under Prime Minister Theresa May, making th ..read more

The UK pioneered a legal and institutional framework for climate action with the Climate Change Act and the establishment of an independent Climate Change Committee in 2008. This has since guided 15 years of UK policy and progress, including an upgrade of the 2050 goal to Net Zero in 2019, on the advice of the Committee. The concept of an independent, expert, statutory body tasked with advising Government and assessing progress against statutory goals was a novelty in 2008. It has since become a well-established institution, guiding action in the UK and increasingly replicated in other countr ..read more

Professor Piers Forster, Chair of the Climate Change Committee, said: “In June, the Climate Change Committee expressed concerns to Parliament about the pace of change required to meet the UK’s climate goals over the 2030s. Since then, there have been important climate announcements from Government, including the Prime Minister’s speech on 20 September. As promised, we have run the numbers. “We welcome tangible positive policy progress in some key areas, most notably with the implementation of the new Zero Emission Vehicles mandate and the recent deal with Tata Steel for industrial e ..read more

Steven Fries. Ministers have appointed Steven Fries as a member to the Committee, following a competitive process. Steven is a distinguished economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and Peterson Institute for International Economics. He specialises in the economics of transforming energy systems and brings the Committee deep expertise in the economics of energy, climate change and sustainable finance. He was previously Chief Economist at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and Group Chief Economist at Shell. His earlier career also included se ..read more

Following last year’s High Court ruling, the UK Government has published the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP), providing much greater transparency on its Net Zero plans. However, despite over 3,000 pages of new detail, the Climate Change Committee’s confidence in the UK meeting its goals from 2030 onwards is now markedly less than it was in our previous assessment a year ago. A key opportunity to push a faster pace of progress has been missed. UK greenhouse gas emissions have so far fallen 46% from 1990 levels. At COP26, a stretching 2030 commitment was made to reduce them by 68%. In only se ..read more