The effects of climate change have already been evident in recent months. March this year represented the 10th consecutive monthly record in a warming phase, beating all previous records. Over the past 12 months, average global temperatures have been 1.58C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement, set in 2015, set a limit of 1.5C above pre-industrialised levels.
According to climate scientists, the UK will not hit climate change targets. According to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), only around 33% of the emission reductions needed to achieve the UK’s 2030 target are supported by credible plans. There is a more positive story however – our emissions are now less than half the levels they were back in 1990.
According to Professor Piers Forster, interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, the UK’s 2030 emissions target is at risk, and the new Labour government has an opportunity to correct this. However, he adds that this needs to be done urgently.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) have proposed a list of ten recommendations which will help drive the UK 2030 target forward:
1. Make electricity cheaper. Removing policy costs from electricity prices will support industrial electrification and help lower the running costs of heat pumps compared to fossil-fuel boilers.
2. Reverse recent policy rollbacks. Remove the exemption of 20% of households from the 2035 fossil-fuel boiler installation phase-out, address the gap left by removing obligations on landlords to improve the energy efficiency of rented homes and reinstate the 2030 phase-out of new fossil-fuel car and van sales.
3. Remove planning barriers for heat pumps, electric vehicle charge points and onshore wind.
4. Introduce a comprehensive programme for decarbonisation of public sector buildings.
5. Effectively design and implement the upcoming renewable energy CfD auctions. Ensure funding and auction design for the Sixth and Seventh Allocation Rounds are appropriate to deliver at least 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030.
6. Accelerate electrification of industrial heat. Strengthen the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to ensure that its price is sufficient to incentivise decarbonisation and that support is available for a rapid transition to electric heat across much of industry.
7. Ramp up tree planting and peatland restoration. Tree planting must be scaled up in the 2020s for abatement to be sufficient for later carbon budgets and Net Zero. There must be no more delays to addressing the barriers to delivery.
8. Finalise business models for large-scale deployment of engineered removals. Finalise and open to the market the business models for engineered removals.
9. Publish a strategy to support skills. Support workers in sectors which need to grow or transition and in communities that may be adversely impacted.
10. Strengthen NAP3 with a vision that sets clear objectives and targets and reorganise government adaptation policy. Adaptation must become a fundamental aspect of policymaking across all departments and be integrated into other national policy objectives.
Moving to Renewable Energy
There is a range of renewable energy sources that can and will replace fossil fuels, which will all help get the UK back on track to its 2030 target. In 1991, just 2% of electricity production in the UK was from renewable energy. In 2023, this is now:
Wind power contributed 29.4%
Biomass energy, the burning of renewable organic materials, contributed 5%
Solar power contributed 4.9%
Hydropower, including tidal, contributed 1.8%
Biomass energy includes wood – the key component of any wood-burning stove. So, can you classify wood-burning stoves as using a renewable energy source? Absolutely! Wood-burning stoves have the lowest carbon-emission heating available in homes.
They have a carbon intensity of 1/19th of direct electric heating and around 1/15th of a heat pump (at current grid carbon intensity). Carbon intensity refers to how many grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released to produce a kilowatt hour (kWh) of, for example, electricity. As wood is a renewable energy source, it has an incredibly low carbon intensity.
