Climate

Gordon Brown has hit out at governments’ efforts to raise $100 billion to tackle the climate crisis, likening it to being treated as “organising a whip-round at a charity fundraiser” – just weeks before a crucial summit.In an article for The Independent, the former Labour prime minister argued the success of Cop26 depends on the world’s richest countries honouring the “yet unrealised” 12-year-old pledge to transfer the funds to low-income countries.He added that governments must also ratchet up shorter-term carbon reduction targets for 2025 and 2030 – recognising the urgency of the situation – and urged companies to disclose their carbon footprint.Mr Brown’s intervention comes just 11 days before world leaders meet in Glasgow for the UN climate summit, where Boris Johnson hopes to seal a deal to keep global warming below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.Another of the government’s key targets is to urge developed counties to “make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100bn in climate finance per year” – a goal that was first initiated at a climate summit in 2009.Mr Brown, who was prime minister at the time, said: “We knew that, as Artic and Antarctic ice disappears, floods and fires increase, and threats to biodiversity multiply, the poorest people in the poorest countries will be hit hardest.”But he added: “Instead of countries agreeing an equitable sharing of the burden, we have treated the business of raising $100bn like organising a whip-round at a charity fundraiser.“In no year since 2009 has the fund every yielded more than $40bn of the promised $100bn. It is only when multilateral bank disbursements and private funding – mainly in loans for renewable projects – are added that the annual sum finally reached $80bn in 2019, still well below what was promised.”The former prime minister warned that current commitments, including both the UK and US, “still falls far short of what they should be contributing.”“Until developed countries outline a credible path to making good their promise, vulnerable countries will not trust any pledges made on future emissions reductions and they could decide to bring Cop26 down,” he said. “So it is imperative that in the days between now and the start of Cop26 the $100bn a year is finally achieved.”It comes after controversy surrounding the UK’s commitment, with billions pledged being taken from the overseas aid budget, which has already been dramatically scaled back by the Treasury.On Tuesday, the UK government also published long-delayed documents setting out its strategy to reach the legally binding target of net zero by 2050, but faced criticism from climate campaigners arguing ministers should be going “further and faster”.While proposals to replace polluting gas boilers, support the switch to electric cars and plant millions of trees were welcomed, critics warned the package was over-cautious, with one expert saying it was more in tune with limiting global warming to 2.5-3C, rather than the 1.5C maximum which is the goal of next month’s crucial UN Cop26 summit in Glasgow. More

Boris Johnson’s government has been urged to change course over its support for new oil drilling in Surrey or risk “hypocrisy” at the crucial Cop26 climate conference.The government is set to defend in court a decision by Surrey council to grant planning permission for six oil wells only a few days after the crucial international summit in Glasgow end next month.Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has written to climate minister Alok Sharma – president of the Cop26 summit – urging him to push for the drilling application to be called in and refused.In a letter shared with The Independent, Davey wrote: “This new oil field is the equivalent to ministerial colleagues breaking your cricket bat just as you walk out to the crease at Cop26.”The Lib Dem leader added: “Your job is to hold China to account for their new oil infrastructure – how can you do that when your government is building its own?”Davey also told Sharma: “As the minister responsible for Cop26, you must put party allegiances aside, and call for the government to oppose this new oil field and immediately call in the planning application.”In 2019 Surrey County Council approved an application from Horse Hill Developments – a subsidiary of UK Oil and Gas – to drill for an estimated three million tonnes of oil outside the town of Horley, near Gatwick airport.Although the High Court has upheld the decision after a challenged by resident and campaigner Sarah Finch, a further appeal case will be heard at the Court of Appeal on 16 November.Both the Lib Dems and Friends of the Earth are urging the government not to support the local authority’s case next month, and instead call in the original application.Dave Timms, head of political affairs at Friends of the Earth, said: “It’s the height of hypocrisy for the government to claim to be a climate leader on the global stage while piling into court to defend a decision to allow millions of barrels of oil to be drilled out of the Surrey countryside.”The climate campaigner added: “They need to withdraw from this case now.”The communities department, now headed up by Michael Gove, remains involved in the case since the drilling application relates to national planning policy.On Tuesday the government published its long-awaited net zero strategy document, detailing plans for Britain to be entirely powered entirely by clean electricity by 2035.But Greenpeace said the plan was only “half hearted” and condemned the failure to make a firm commitment to ending new oil and gas licences.Kate Blagojevic, head of climate at Greenpeace UK, told The Independent: “Oil drilling, a new coal mine, airport expansions – all are completely incompatible with our plans to slash emissions, yet these projects are being signed off and the government seems reluctant to intervene.”The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “This decision by Surrey council is subject to a legal challenge, we do not comment about ongoing cases.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has said it will require all vehicles in the UK to be “zero-emissions capable” by 2035, as ministers set out the plan for achieving their 2050 net zero target.The long-awaited Net Zero Strategy document published on Tuesday has detailed the government’s plan for Britain to be entirely powered entirely by clean electricity by 2035.The government also promised to make a final investment decision on the building of a new, large-scale nuclear power plant by the end of the current parliament.But opposition parties and campaigners said the plan was a “massive letdown” which failed to meet the scale of the crisis – accusing the government of coming up with only “half-hearted” policies.“This document is more like a pick and mix than the substantial meal we need to reach net zero,” said Greenpeace UK’s Rebecca Newsom – pointing to “the lack of concrete plans to deliver renewables at scale … or a firm commitment to end new oil and gas licences”.The prime minister claimed his strategy for achieving net zero emissions by 2050 could be achieved without sacrifice, claiming: “We can build back greener without so much as a hair shirt in sight.”Johnson said that by 2050 “our cars will be electric gliding silently around our cities, our planes will be zero emission allowing us to fly guilt-free, and our homes will be heated by cheap reliable power”.The government promised a “a zero-emission vehicle mandate” and committed £620m for zero-emission vehicle grants and more infrastructure for electric vehicles in residential areas.The strategy states: “This will deliver on our 2030 commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, and 2035 commitment that all cars must be fully zero emissions capable.”Ministers pledged to set firm targets for a percentage of manufacturers’ new vehicles to be zero emission each year from 2024.The government also promised to “fully decarbonise” the UK’s power system by 2035, with a pledge to finalise investment in a new nuclear plant and deliver four carbon capture usage and storage clusters by 2030.Ministers will also launch a £120m pound “future nuclear enabling fund” aimed at boosting new technologies, including small modular reactors.Mr Johnson’s government said its aim is to achieve 40GW of offshore wind and deliver 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030, whilst halving emissions from oil and gas.Business minister Greg Hands said the strategy showed the government’s commitment to take “decisive action” to reach the target ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.Speaking in the Commons, Mr Hands said the push towards to cleaner sources of energy will help reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels and “bring down costs down the line” for consumers.But Labour said the plan “falls short” of action need to deal with the climate crisis. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said: “While there is modest short-term investment, there’s nothing like the commitment we believe is required.”Under Heat and Building Strategy plans released overnight, some people will be able to £5,000 grants to replace their boilers with green heat pumps. But just 90,000 of the UK’s 22 million gas-heated households will benefit in a plan branded “inadequate” by environmentalists.Labour accused chancellor Rishi Sunak of thwarting the kind of government spending needed to meet the scale of the climate emergency. “The chancellor’s fingerprints are all over these documents and not in a good way,” said Mr Miliband.Called for a “proper” plan to retrofit home, Miliband said “there is not even a replacement for the ill-fated green home grant for homeowners” in the government’s plan. The senior Labour MP asked: “Where the long-term retrofit plan is?”The government said it is considering ways to require mortgage lenders to disclose details about the energy performance of homes – leading to fears that first-time buyers could find it harder to get on the ladder without committing to upgrades.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the net zero strategy ignored the “elephant in the room” by failing to include any measures to stop investment in fossil fuel industries through the City of London.The TUC condemned the strategy as a “huge let down, claiming it left a “yawning gap” in the investment needed to help British industry reach net zero.The union’s general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government has failed to implement many of the main recommendations of its own green jobs taskforce – just two weeks before it hosts the UN climate change conference.”Prof Jim Watson, professor of energy policy at the UCL Institute of Sustainable Resources, said the government’s strategy document was a “step in the right direction” – but predicted more commitments would be needed.“It isn’t enough, of course. Funding for low carbon heating is modest, and there is too little focus on how buildings will be made more efficient, for example,” he said. “So it will need to be followed up by a ratcheting up of ambitions in the coming months and years.”The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the independent body advising the government, said the net zero strategy amounted to a “significant step forward”.Chris Stark, the CCC’s chief executive: “We didn’t have a plan before, now we do … It provides much more clarity about what lies ahead for businesses and individuals and the key actions required in the coming decades.”Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Johnson announced nearly £10bn pounds of private investment commitments in green projects at a summit in London.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) claimed new regulations and investment plans committed by the private sector would support up to 440,000 new jobs by 2030.The Treasury said new taxes will probably be needed to compensate for the loss of revenues from its shift away from fossil fuels which will hit the government’s income that is currently raised by fuel duty.The government “may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue” rather than relying on increased borrowing, said the Treasury’s net zero review. More

Hotter summers and less predictable rainfall as a result of climate change will create an increased risk of droughts and serious water shortages in the UK, the Environment Agency has said.In a stark warning ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, the government agency said there had to be far greater focus on the threat to water supply as the country begins to feel the impact of the climate crisis.Sir James Bevan, chief executive of Environment Agency, said major investments are needed to avoid the so-called ‘Jaws of Death’ – the point on water companies’ planning charts where demand outstrips supply.“Good water quality is essential – but the right water quantity is existential,” he said. “We need as much emphasis on the latter in the future as we have now on the former.”Sir James added: “We know what to do to avoid those jaws: reduce demand, by using less water more efficiently; and improve supply, including by investing in the right infrastructure. That means we need to think strategically, radically and long term.”The Environment Agency has estimated that summer rainfall is expected to decrease by approximately 15 per cent in England by the 2050s, and by up to 22 per cent by the 2080s.Population growth and climate change will also increase the demand for water – meaning that if no further action is taken between 2025 and 2050, more than 3.4 billion extra litres of water per day will be needed for the UK’s public water supplies.In a gloomy report handed to Boris Johnson’s government last week, the agency said more and worse environmental incidents – such as greater flooding and serious water shortages – are now inevitable in the UK.In an “adapt or die” warning, the non-departmental public body has urged the government to focus on adaptation measures – claiming there are now just as important as action to cut carbon missions.“However successful Cop26 is, it won’t stop the climate changing or all the effects of that change,” Sir James told the Royal Society on Tuesday.“Because human activity to date means that some irrevocable climate change has already happened and that more will continue to happen, even if the world stopped all carbon emissions tonight.”The Environment Agency chief added: “That is why as a nation we need to be climate ready – resilient to the future hazards and potential shocks that we already know will impact on all our lives.” More

Plans have been announced to incentivise people to replace their old gas boilers with low-carbon heating options, including heat pumps. The government said new £5,000 grants will be available to households to help them to install low-carbon technologies from next April. The plans aim to make heat pumps — which run on electricity and work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground — no more expensive to install than a traditional boiler.But environmentalists have criticised the three-year scheme – which would pay for one in 250 boilers to be replaced – as not going far enough.Out of the 22 million gas-heated households in the UK, 90,000 would be able to benefit from £5,000 grants under the £450m plan. While the new incentives aim to make the UK’s homes greener, the government has said homeowners will not be forced to make the low-carbon switch when replacing existing boilers.But for those who want to choose a more environmentally friendly option, the grant will be available to cut the installation costs — which is around £10,000 on average for heat pumps. Instead of forcing people into making an immediate switch, the grants aim to encourage homeowners to make green choices when the time comes to replace old boilers. Octopus Energy, a renewable energy group, said it would install heat pumps for about the same cost as gas boilders when the grant scheme launches next spring. The government’s boiler upgrade scheme – worth £450m in total – is planned to run over three years until 2024. The government says it wants to see households “gradually move away” from fossil fuel boilers “in an affordable, practical and fair way” over the next 14 years. But speaking about the boiler upgrade scheme, Mike Childs from Friends of the Eart said: “£450m pounds delivered via individual £5,000 grants means 90,000 heat pump installations over three years.“That just isn’t very much, and won’t meet the prime minister’s ambition of 600,000 a year by 2028.” More

The government’s long-awaited plan to overhaul how Britain heats its homes for the climate emergency has been branded “inadequate” and “not a very good start” by environmentalists. Just 90,000 of the UK’s 22 million gas-heated households will benefit from £5,000 grants to replace their boilers with green heat pumps – assistance which will not even cover the costs of the 0.4 per cent of households who benefit. And ministers have ignored the advice of their scientific advisors and failed to bring forward the phase-out date for the sale of new gas boilers, with sales to continue as late as 2035 despite looming climate targets.Under the plans released by the government overnight a £450m boiler upgrade fund would be spread over three years until 2024, with grants provided to help replace just 30,000 boilers each year. Boris Johnson has previously set a target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year across homes and public buildings by 2028 – which campaigners say he is now unlikely to meet.The government is betting on the price of heat pumps and other green heating systems coming down rapidly, and is providing a £60m “innovation fund” to encourage that process.But campaigners say households need more help if climate targets are to be met. Just 67,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK in 2021 according to industry figures, compared to around a million and a half new gas boilers. “£450m pounds delivered via individual £5,000 grants means 90,000 heat pump installations over three years. That just isn’t very much, and won’t meet the prime minister’s ambition of 600,000 a year by 2028,” said Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, who described the government’s plan as “quite modest”.”Investment will drive down the cost of heat pumps, and technical innovation plus skills training is a part of this, but so is scale. These grants will only incentivise the best-off households.”Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, Caroline Jones, said: “Sadly the government has stopped short of what’s required to transform our housing into the clean, affordable, energy efficient homes that we all want and need to be living in. “Housing is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise but the government is making it all the more difficult by leaving half its tools in the toolbox, with unambitious policies and inadequate funding.”She added: “More money must be provided to rapidly increase the number of homeowners switching to heat pumps over the next few years, with full costs covered for families on low incomes. A clearer signal would have been a phase-out of new boilers before 2035. And all of this must be delivered with a fully funded, nationwide programme to insulate our homes at a scale and speed that the government hasn’t fully grasped.”The government’s committee on climate change, a statutory body which advises ministers on how to meet net zero, had also recommended bringing forward the phase-out date for gas boilers to 2032.But this recommendation was nowhere to be found in the government’s strategy, with the date staying at 2035, potentially baking in millions of new gas boilers in the intervening years. The government has a legally binding target to hit net zero by 2050, though some scientists argue the date needs to be brought forward to avoid catastrophic climate change.The committee says that in order to meet climate targets, by 2030 at least 80 per cent of all new heat installations need to be low-carbon systems like heat pumps – around 1 million installations a year. Announcing the new policy, Boris Johnson said: “As we clean up the way we heat our homes over the next decade, we are backing our brilliant innovators to make clean technology like heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as gas boilers – supporting thousands of green jobs. “Our new grants will help homeowners make the switch sooner, without costing them extra, so that going green is the better choice when their boiler needs an upgrade.”But Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband branded the plan a “meagre, unambitious and wholly inadequate response”.“Families up and down the country desperately needed Labour’s 10-year plan investing £6bn a year for home insulation and zero carbon heating to cut bills by £400 per year, improve our energy security, create jobs and reduce carbon emissions,” he said.“People can’t warm their homes with yet more of Boris Johnson’s hot air but that is all that is on offer.”Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse described the policy as “a kick in the teeth for families across the country facing soaring energy bills this winter”.“These proposals will do nothing to lift people out of fuel poverty and hardly make a dent in the emissions produced from homes. And they will help around just 1 in 300 homes, whilst millions of households face record high bills due to rising gas prices,” she said.“We urgently need an emergency programme of investment to better insulate our homes, cut emissions and end fuel poverty. Instead the government is delaying the inevitable while condemning millions to eye-watering bills for years to come.” More