UK has ‘lost climate leadership’ – CCC report

The 2023 Progress Report urged the government to return Net Zero to ‘top billing’, pointing to missed opportunities to speed the energy transition in the wake of the war in Ukraine and the accompanying energy crisis. It claimed that support for new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea as well as a new coal mine in Cumbria risked undermining the progress made by the UK during its COP26 Presidency and the Glasgow Climate Pact. In a letter to the prime minister that accompanied the report, CCC chairman Lord Deben criticised the government’s policy decisions and urged it to assume a leading role once again in tackling the climate emergency.

“The failure to act decisively in response to the energy crisis and build on the success of hosting COP26 means that the UK has lost its clear global climate leadership while game-changing interventions from the US and Europe, which will turbocharge growth of renewables, are leaving the UK behind,” he said. “Inaction has been compounded by continuing support for further unnecessary investment in fossil fuels.