CCC recommends deeper emissions cuts by 2035

These figures – measured against a baseline from 1990 and excluding aviation and shipping – would require deeper cuts than recommended previously by the CCC. In 2020, as part of the Committee’s Sixth Carbon Budget, a target of 78 per cent was deemed sufficient to keep the UK on track for its climate commitments, as outlined in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The raised target reflects both a degree of inaction from the UK in the intervening years, as well as a widely acknowledged worsening of effects from the climate crisis.   

“With climate damages already felt around the world, targeting an 81 per cent emissions reduction by 2035 sets the right level of ambition,” said Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the Climate Change Committee.

“Our analysis shows this can be achieved in a way that benefits jobs and the economy, provided we hit the country’s 2030 target – set in line with the CCC’s advice in 2020.”

The CCC was responding to an August 2024 request from energy secretary Ed Milliband for advice on the UK’s upcoming NDCs. All Parties to the Paris Agreement must communicate NDCs at least nine months ahead of the relevant Conference of the Parties (COP). The 2035 NDCs are due before February 2025. According to the Climate Change Committee, the UK has all the tools required to hit the revised target. 

“The technologies needed to achieve it are available, at a competitive price, today,” said Prof Foster. “Investment in low carbon technologies – electric vehicles, heat pumps, and renewables – needs to come now for this target to be achievable. Businesses will start to invest when they have confidence in what the government’s long term policy plans are. We need to see the government’s commitment to climate reflected in the upcoming Budget.

“More than any commitment, what we really need is action. I have no doubt that the United Kingdom can once again be a leader on the international stage – in both deeds and words.”