To achieve net zero we urgently need robust and detailed policy proposals from government

The government’s independent advisor, the Climate Change Committee has today (09 December 2020) published its sixth carbon budget, effectively its road map to achieving Net Zero.

The report says the UK can make major cuts to carbon emissions more cheaply than previously thought but says it will require huge private sector investment and more detailed policy from the government.

Sue Ferns, senior deputy general secretary of Prospect, said:

“This is an ambitious set of proposals from the CCC that strongly underscores the need for a big expansion of low carbon energy infrastructure over the next fifteen years, with a clear role for new nuclear. It is also very welcome that the CCC has put just transition at the heart of its thinking on Net Zero, something which Prospect and other unions have long been calling for.

“But, as the CCC makes clear, without a clear strategy for supporting existing workers in high carbon industries to manage disruptive change, and a plan to ensure new jobs in the green economy are actually created here in the UK, just transition will not progress from rhetoric to reality.

“The ball is now firmly in the government’s court. We urgently need the robust and detailed policy proposals that can match the scale of the climate emergency. This must include the long-delayed energy white paper and a strategy for just transition. Time is increasingly against us and 2021 must be the year when the UK demonstrates real leadership on Net Zero.”