Petition Repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and Net Zero targets

The Government’s policy to support ambitious action on climate change reflects the mainstream scientific consensus and thousands of studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments. The IPCC is the authoritative source of information on climate science. The IPCC has established that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years. This warming of the climate is attributed to the build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel combustion and deforestation. The evidence for this is set out in chapters 2 and 3 of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Working Group 1 report. The IPCC Sixth Assessment reports can be accessed here: https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/

As discussed in chapter 4 of the above report, if the CO2 concentration continues to rise unchecked the world could face a global surface temperature rise of about 3°C or more above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. The serious consequences of this for human societies and ecosystems are set out in the IPCC Working Group report on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation.

The Climate Change Act 2008 sets our commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in law. The UK has halved its emissions, having cut them by around 53% between 1990 and 2023. We are absolutely committed to our targets. That is why making Britain a clean energy superpower is one of the five missions of this government — delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero across the economy.

This transition will be one of the economic opportunities of the century – a chance to create hundreds of thousands of good jobs, drive investment into all parts of the UK, and protect the UK economy from future price shocks that reliance on fossil fuels create. Beyond growth and energy security, the transition to a net zero economy can deliver a range of social and health benefits for people right across the UK. As we act on how we heat our homes and buildings, fuel our transport, and protect our natural world, we can cut fuel poverty, clean up our air, increase access to nature and improve quality of life.

The net zero transition is critical to sustainable UK growth because of the economic costs of unmitigated climate change, and because global demand for low-carbon products and services is growing rapidly. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its analysis of the cost of reaching net zero by 2050 in chapter 3 of the July 2021 edition of its UK Fiscal Risk Report. As the OBR has noted, “the costs of failing to get climate change under control would be much larger than those of bringing emissions down to net zero.” (https://obr.uk/frs/fiscal-risks-report-july-2021/#:~:text=This%20year%20we%20cover%20three,legacy%20for%20the%20public%20finances.)

We know many people are struggling with their bills and we want to do everything we can to help them. Without the shift to renewable energy, we will continue to be exposed to volatile fossil fuel markets and the cost-of-living crises households had to live through in the last Parliament.

We will be fighting for working families and businesses through establishing Great British Energy (GBE), a publicly owned national champion that will ensure British taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, home-grown energy. GBE will work in lockstep with the National Wealth Fund (NWF). The NWF, capitalised with £27.8bn, will mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy and growth industries and support the delivery of the Industrial Strategy.

We have also created a Clean Power 2030 Unit led by former chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, to act as a top team of industry experts and officials to troubleshoot, negotiate and clear the way for energy projects which drive growth.

The net zero transition will support the creation of hundreds of thousands of good jobs across the UK. There were 272,400 full-time equivalents (FTE) directly employed in the UK Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy in 2022, an 8% increase since 2021 – with up to 450,000 FTE employees when including the wider supply chain.

There are high levels of support for our net zero goals, and we know that people are willing to make choices to help reduce climate change. The most recent wave of the DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker shows that 80% of the UK public are either fairly or very concerned about climate change (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/desnz-public-attitudes-tracker-winter-2023).

We are committed to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the transition, supporting people and communities to take action and realise the benefits.  We will set out our approach in a Public Participation Strategy to be published in 2025. This will include opportunities to ensure public views are considered in policy development.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero