CCC to push UK government to deliver climate-resilient coronavirus recovery

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is to present advice to the government on supporting a resilient, low carbon economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis as part of its annual assessment of the UK's progress towards its 2050 net zero greenhouse gas emissions goal this summer.

The UK's climate advisory body confirmed today that it would consider the impact of the pandemic on the UK's climate goals, as it unveiled its revised work programme for 2020 in response to the disruption caused by the health crisis and subsequent national lockdown.

The CCC said it would be writing to ministers "in the coming weeks" to set out its initial advice on ensuring that economic rebuilding efforts support a "just transition" towards net zero emissions, while also strengthening the UK's preparedness for the escalating impacts of climate change.

Then, in June, the Committee's annual report to Parliament on the government's progress towards net zero emissions will also set out more detailed advice on building a green, resilient recovery to the current crisis, CCC chief executive Chris Stark announced.

"Responding to the pandemic is, rightly, the immediate priority for everyone," he said. "Eventually, thoughts will turn to the need to rebuild after coronavirus - the climate priorities can help shape these efforts. The Committee will offer advice to government on constructing a resilient recovery. Coronavirus is teaching us all the value of prudent planning for global shocks."

The move comes amid growing calls across Europe for Covid-19 recovery efforts to focus on delivering the EU's proposed 2050 net zero goal, with a coalition of CEOs, politicians, NGOs and trade unions this week calling for a green investment programme to spur the bloc's economic recovery.

However, today's update also confirms that several key elements of the CCC's work this year have had to be pushed back as a result of the virus outbreak, including its much-anticipated advice to the government on the level of ambition and measures required for the statutory carbon targets in the mid-2030s.

The CCC's advice on Sixth Carbon Budget, covering 2033-37 period, had been due for publication in September, but will now appear in December 2020. The Committee stressed the revised publication date still sat within the UK's statutory timetable.

The advice had been seen as a critical milestone in the run up to the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, which had been scheduled for November, but has now been postponed until next year.

The government has been under growing pressure to urgently deliver a host of ambitious climate policies since its General Election victory late last year, with critics highlighting how the UK is currently off-track towards achieving its interim climate targets for the mid-2020s and beyond, let alone the more ambitious goals that are likely to be necessitated by the government's adoption of a legally-binding net zero emission target for 2050.

As such, the advice on the Sixth Carbon Budget is widely expected to call on the government to strengthen its medium term emissions goals and step up decarbonisation efforts on a host of fronts.

Meanwhile, the government had been expected to pre-empt the CCC's advice by setting out a range of new net zero policies this year - such as its Energy White Paper on decarbonising power and heat, various policies for curbing emissions from buildings, transport, industry and agriculture, and its formal climate action plan submission to the UN - as it sought to get the UK's decarbonisation trajectory into line with the long term net zero goal. But while Ministers have stressed that they remain fully committed to the net zero goal there are now widespread concerns that the timetable for new climate policies could be delayed as Whitehall focuses all its attention on tackling the coronavirus outbreak.

In addition to its focus on domestic policies, the CCC said its preparations were continuing for the COP26 Summit, which is now expected to be rescheduled for mid-2021 at the earliest.

The Committee announced today it had appointed Pete Betts, the UK government's former chief climate negotiator, to help offer expert advice ahead of the summit. A veteran of 16 past UN climate summits, Betts also worked as lead climate negotiator for the EU for six years, including at the historic COP21 summit which delivered the Paris Agreement.

"I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Pete Betts to our team," said Stark. "His insight will be invaluable to the Committee in the run-up to the most important summit on climate change since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015."