The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has released its first assessment of the new Government’s progress on reducing emissions - the independent, statutory body says that with more action UK will hit its legally binding climate targets.

The Committee found that government policies to reduce emissions have improved since last year 

Though still falling short of the rates required to hit targets, there has been positive delivery on key areas this year, including new car electric vehicle market share (19.6% in 2024), heat pump installations (up 56%), and woodland creation (up 59%). While peatland restoration rates increased significantly by 47% in 2023/24, both woodland creation and peatland restoration are behind the combined UK and devolved administration government targets. 

The report says the proposed Land Use Framework for England is an important step in setting out how land use can be balanced to deliver on a wide range of objectives such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security, and nature. "However, it remains unclear how this framework will drive change on the ground."

Water sector - CCC downgrades assessment of data improvement in industrial wastewater

Commenting on the water sector, the report says Ofwat’s 2024 price review (PR24) is the first price review to have common performance commitments for operational emissions.However, it points out that Ofwat expects the sector to increase operational emissions over the PR24 period to meet their statutory commitments (e.g. reduce storm overflows). Ofwat expects the sector to limit this increase to less than 2% - PR24 includes an allowance to spend £467 million across 31 wastewater enhancement schemes through the Net Zero challenge fund on alternative treatments for wastewater.

The CCC has downgraded its assessment of data improvement in industrial wastewater due to delays.

The report flags up lack of a clear plan to improve data for industrial wastewater treatment, saying the situation has worsened from posing some risks to significant risks.

The CCC is calling on the Government to enable improved monitoring of wastewater emissions and encourage investment in technology development and deployment to reduce emissions from wastewater.

Government has made bold policy decisions this year

The report says that much of the progress made during the year is due to previous policy, set out under the previous Government. However this Government has also made bold policy decisions this year – notably on removing planning barriers on renewable deployment, clarity on the clean power mission, and the reinstatement of the 2030 phase-out date for new petrol and diesel vehicles.

Last year, the CCC made making electricity cheaper its first recommendation. The report points out that currently, when people and businesses switch to electric technologies, they are paying more than the actual cost of supplying the extra electricity they demand, because of policy decisions taken many years ago.

The report says removing policy costs from electricity would ensure the underlying cost-savings of switching to efficient electric technologies are captured by households and businesses, encouraging take-up. The Government has made no clear progress on removing policy costs since the election. Making electricity cheaper remains the Committee’s first recommendation.

Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Professor Piers Forster, said:

“The UK can be proud of our progress in reducing emissions. We’ve cut them by over 50% since 1990. Our country is among a leading group of economies demonstrating a commitment to decarbonise society. This is to be celebrated: delivering deep emissions reduction is the only way to slow global warming.

“However, the Government needs to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills. Given increasingly unstable geopolitics, it is also important to get off unreliable fossil fuels and onto homegrown, renewable energy as quickly as possible.

“The fossil fuel era is over – cheap, clean electricity is our future.”

Making electricity cheaper will speed up uptake of clean electric technologies

The CCC says that making electricity cheaper will help people feel the benefits of the transition and speed up the uptake of clean electric technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.

However, more action is needed and must accelerate. Despite encouraging trends, electric vehicle and heat pump rollout remain slightly below what is needed and the tree planting rate from last year may not be sustained without further support. .

Over the last year, the UK has made progress on reducing emissions. Emissions fell 2.5% in 2024, the tenth consecutive year of sustained reduction in emissions, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic years 2020 and 2021.

The UK’s emissions have halved (-50.4%) since 1990.

Priority recommendations in the report are:

• Make electricity cheaper.
• Provide confidence and certainty to scale heat pump deployment in existing buildings.
• Implement regulations to ensure that new homes are not connected to the gas grid.
• Introduce a comprehensive programme to decarbonise public sector buildings.
• Accelerate the electrification of industrial heat.
• Effectively deliver rapid expansion of the low-carbon electricity system.
• Put policies and incentives in place to ramp up tree planting and peatland restoration to ensure planting rates increase quickly due to the time it takes for trees to grow and sequester substantial levels of CO2. 
• Develop policy to ensure that the aviation industry takes responsibility for its emissions reaching Net Zero by 2050.Finalise business models for engineered removals.
• Publish a strategy to support skills.

Click here to download Progress in reducing emissions 2025 report to Parliament