Government confirms new 2035 emissions target for UK
The UK government has announced new climate goals at COP29, including reducing emissions by 81% by 2035, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling on other countries to bring forward ambitious targets.
According to the Government, today’s announcement at the COP29 Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan will strengthen the UK’s position as a place for investment in the technologies and jobs that are driving growth across the world.
There are 640,000 green jobs in the UK, growing at a rate four times faster than overall UK employment.
To support the industry the government has announced a significant investment programme in homegrown British energy – including renewables, carbon capture and storage, nuclear and hydrogen.
The UK’s reliance on fossil fuels has also been felt by every family and business in the last few years with the worst cost of living crisis in memory, driven by energy price spikes from international gas markets.
The government’s mission is to tackle the climate crisis in a way that makes the British people better off by investing in clean homegrown power and unlocking thousands of jobs, having already seen £34.8 billion of private investment into the UK’s clean energy industries since July.
This ambitious and pragmatic new target supports the UK’s mission for growth, helping to attract further investment and jobs in low carbon technologies such as solar and wind, electric vehicles and batteries.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
“The only way to protect current generations is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, and the only way to protect future generations is by tackling the climate crisis.
“Britain is back in the business of climate leadership, with an ambitious new target that will protect our environment, deliver energy security and restore our global climate reputation.
“We will cut emissions across the country, delivering for our environment and ending our exposure to spiking fossil fuel markets.”
This new target is in line with the recommendation from the Climate Change Committee and previously legislated and legally-binding Carbon Budgets for the same period.
The target forms what is called the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC): commitments that countries make to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. It is aligned to 1.5C.
The UK has called for other countries to match the UK’s ambition to address the urgency of climate change, following stark warnings from the United Nations that the world is way off track to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C.
Since July the government has:
- Lifted the ban on onshore wind in England
- Delivered a record number of clean energy projects through its renewables auction
- Consented unprecedented amounts of nationally significant solar – 2GW – more than the last 14 years combined
- Launched Great British Energy backed by £8.3 billion to speed up the deployment of clean technologies
- Fired the starting gun on the UK’s carbon capture, usage and storage industry, with funding agreed for 2 clusters in Teesside and the North West
Globally, the costs of renewables continue to fall, with solar and wind now cheaper than existing coal and gas power plants in most of the world.
Recent analysis from the International Energy Agency found that in 2023 for every $1 spent on fossil fuels, $1.7 was spent on clean energy. Global energy investment is set to be over $3 trillion in 2024, with $2 trillion of this on clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
Industry reaction to follow.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
