Radical new climate change commitments will set the UK on course to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035, Boris Johnson will announce this week
For most households the new carbon emissions targets mean more electric cars, low-carbon heating, renewable electricity and, for many, cutting down on meat and dairy.
For the first time, climate law will be extended to cover international aviation and shipping.
But Labour has said that the government had to match “rhetoric with reality”.
The Party urged Boris Johnson to treat “the climate emergency as the emergency it is” and show “greater ambition”.
The prime minister’s commitments, which will become law, bring forward the current target for reducing carbon emissions by 15 years. This would be a world-leading position.
Homes across the nation will need to be much better insulated, and people will be encouraged to drive their vehicles less and walk and cycle more. Aviation is also likely to become more expensive for frequent fliers.
The government has accepted the advice from its independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) to adopt an emissions cut, which has been based on 1990 levels.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted a major surge in CO2 emissions from energy this year, as the world rebounds from the pandemic.
The UK’s new commitments come as US President Joe Biden prepares to stage a climate summit from Washington.
This comes after the Mars Ingenuity mini-helicopter took to the skies of the Red Planet, flying 10ft (three metres) in the air before then touching back down onto the planet’s surface, the space agency has said.
Environmentalists throughout the UK have welcomed the government’s move, but have warned that ministers had consistently failed to achieve the previous targets set by the CCC.
And they insisted that Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to show clearly how the transition is to be funded.
“This is fantastic – very big news,” Leo Murray of the climate charity Possible said.
But he added: “We’re not on track to meet previous climate commitments and in many ways the government is still failing.”
Mr Murray said that ministers were “facing both directions at the same time”, as they had scrapped the Green Homes Grant for insulating homes, had not stopped airport expansion and were “still pushing a £27bn roads budget”.
Ed Matthew, who is the campaigns director of climate think tank E3G, said: “Setting an ambitious emission reduction target would boost the UK’s diplomatic drive to persuade other countries to set out ambitious targets of their own.”
He added: “The UK now has the opportunity to spark a global green industrial revolution, but ultimately its credibility will rest on action.”
The report from the CCC that was accepted by the government says that low-carbon investment must scale up to £50bn a year within the UK. But it adds that in time, the fuel savings from utilising more efficient equipment will cancel out the investment costs.
This comes after a rockfall just west of the south coast seaside town of Weymouth and Dorset council have said that more cliff was expected to be lost into the sea, with people being urged to keep away from the area. Parts of the coastal path have also been cordoned off.
The CCC believes that around 1% of GDP, the UK’s national wealth, would need to be spent on oving away from fossil fuels over a period of 30 years.
Its chairman, Lord Deben, said previously: “The implication of this path is clear: the utmost focus is required from government over the next 10 years.
“If policy is not scaled up across every sector, if business is not encouraged to invest, if the people of the UK are not engaged in this challenge – the UK will not deliver Net Zero by 2050. The 2020s must be the decisive decade of progress and action.”
