The Climate Change Committee, the Government’s independent adviser, is warning that time is running out for the Government to develop and implement realistic climate commitments and policies.

The warning comes in a new report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published today in two volumes - Volume 1 Progress in reducing emissions  and Volume 2 Progress in adapting to climate change.

In the two progress reports, which both separately run to well over 200 pages, the Committee offers its appraisal of progress on the twin climate challenges: cutting emissions to Net Zero and adapting to the climate risks facing the UK.

The CCC is flagging up the major gap between rhetoric and reality on progress. While acknowledging that Government has made “historic climate promises in the past year, for which it deserves credit,” it goes on to deliver strong criticism on Government inaction and failure to tackle the significant challenges facing the UK.

The CCC says:

“It is not enough for Ministers to point to the Glasgow summit and hope that this will carry the day with the public …we cannot rely on good will alone.”

“This demands a step change in Government action, but it is hard to discern any comprehensive strategy in the climate plans we have seen in the last 12 months.

There are gaps and ambiguities. Climate resilience remains a second-order issue, if it is considered at all. We continue to blunder into high-carbon choices.” ….

“The Committee’s advice to step-up the ambition and resourcing of adaptation continues to go unheeded. And the willingness to set emissions targets of genuine ambition contrasts with a reluctance to implement the realistic policies necessary to achieve them….

“A pattern has emerged of Government strategies that are later than planned and, when they do emerge, short of the required policy ambition.”

"Defining year for UK’s climate credentials marred by uncertainty and delay to a host of new climate strategies"

The Committee is warning that this defining year for the UK’s climate credentials has been marred by uncertainty and delay to a host of new climate strategies. In addition, those that have emerged have too often missed the mark and with every month of inaction, it is harder for the UK to get on track.

According to the CCC, the Government is “taking a high-stakes gamble” to focus everything on a new Net Zero Strategy in the autumn to achieve that. The report says it is “absolutely critical” that the new strategy is published before the COP26 climate summit, with clear policy plans, backed fully by the Treasury. It must be accompanied by a commitment to prepare the country for the serious climate risks facing the UK, as the next cycle of adaptation planning begins.

Together, the assessment offers more than 200 policy recommendations covering every part of Government. “The opportunity to implement them is there if the Government moves decisively,” the Committee says.

"The Government must get real on delivery"

Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee commented:

“We are in the decisive decade for tackling climate change. The Government must get real on delivery. Global Britain has to prove that it can lead a global change in how we treat our planet. Get it right and UK action will echo widely. Continue to be slow and timid and the opportunity will slip from our hands. Between now and COP 26 the world will look for delivery, not promises.”

Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee said:

“The UK is leading in diagnosis but lagging in policy and action. This cannot be put off further. We cannot deliver Net Zero without serious action on adaptation. We need action now, followed by a National Adaptation Programme that must be more ambitious; more comprehensive; and better focussed on implementation than its predecessors, to improve national resilience to climate change.”

Progress on Net Zero

The CCC says that despite UK emissions falling to nearly 50% of their 1990 levels during the 2020 lockdown, the journey to Net Zero is far from half completed. Emissions next year are expected to rebound, while lasting progress in reducing emissions has so far been narrowly based.

Sustained reductions in emissions require sustained Government leadership, underpinned by a strong Net Zero Strategy and a Net Zero Test which would ensure that all Government policy, including planning decisions, is compatible with UK climate targets.

The CCC is calling for the Government to tackle the big cross-cutting challenges of public engagement, fair funding and local delivery.

Progress on adaptation in England

Assessing progress on adaptation in England, the CCC says progress in adapting to climate change is not keeping up with the increasing risks facing the country. Only five of 34 sectors assessed by the CCC have shown notable progress in the past two years, and no sector is yet scoring highly in lowering its level of risk.

In addition, the National Adaptation Programme for England has not developed national preparedness for even a 2ºC rise in global temperature, let alone higher levels of warming that are possible by the end of the century.

As the reality of the changing climate becomes clear, so does the required response. The Government must show it has a positive vision for a well-adapted country, with policies and regulations to address all of the key risks set out in the Climate Change Risk Assessment.

The Committee has set out more than 200 policy recommendations covering every part of Government in a separate paper accompanying its assessments on progress.

Recommendations specific to Ofwat include:

• Ensure all regulatory decisions, and procurement decisions, are consistent with the Net Zero goal and reflect the latest understanding of climate risks.
• Include decarbonisation as one of Ofwat’s core principles, to assist the water industry’s goal of decarbonising by 2030, and the need to roll out advanced anaerobic digestion systems.
• Work with Defra, the Environment Agency and other stakeholders to set out targets and supporting measures for reducing water use by business. This could be through ensuring that any water reduction targets linked to the Environment Bill include business as well as household water use as well as responding to advice and recommendations from Defra’s new Senior Water Demand Reduction Group.

Click here to download Volume 1 - Progress in reducing emissions – 2021 Report to Parliament

Click here to download Volume 2 - Progress in adapting to climate change – 2021 Report to Parliament

Click here to download Joint Recommendations