The United Kingdom has made good progress in bringing down carbon emissions cost-effectively, cutting UK air pollution and opening up new growth in clean industries.
The current government’s legal endorsement of the Fifth Carbon Budget is a welcome milestone on the way to meeting our 2050 emissions reduction obligations under the Climate Change Act. Whoever runs the country after June 8th should continue with this success, and implement new policy to give investors the confidence to continue to boost clean growth.
The prospect of Brexit also offers an opportunity for the UK to tailor and strengthen environmental regulation for our own particular circumstance and energy market.
Within its first hundred days, the new government should:
- Publish the Clean Growth Plan, setting out how the UK can meet its legal carbon reduction targets for 2028-2032.
- Bring forward legislation to complete the phase-out of UK coal generation, following the recent consultation.
- Bring forward a carbon intensity target for the power sector, to replace EU renewables targets.
- Establish a Heat Transformation Group, to assess hydrogen, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), and electrification in the least-cost route to decarbonise heat.
- Strengthen the UK price on carbon.