UK can meet 2050 climate target says CCC - "The fossil fuel era is over – cheap, clean electricity is our future"

Wed 25 June 2025 View all news

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that climate change is here now and that temperatures will continue to rise until the world reaches net zero. In its latest progress report, the CCC says that making electricity cheaper is key to helping people feel the benefits of the transition.

In its first assessment of the new Government’s progress on reducing emissions, the independent, statutory body found that policies to reduce emissions have improved since last year. It says that with more action, the UK can hit its legally binding climate targets and improve energy security for households and businesses across the UK.

However, until the world reaches net zero there will inevitably be increasingly extreme weather, including in the UK.

The Committee’s key findings include the suggestion that making electricity cheaper will help people feel the benefits of the transition and speed up the uptake of clean electric technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. 

The report points to positive delivery in key areas over the last year, including:

  • 19.6% rise in new car electric vehicle market share
  • 56% rise in heat pump installations
  • 59% rise in woodland creation 

Much of this progress, the Committee says is due to previous policy, but bold policy decisions by the new Government this year have helped significantly – notably on removing planning barriers on renewable deployment, clarity on the clean power mission, and the reinstatement of the 2030 phase-out date for new petrol and diesel vehicles. 

However, electric vehicle and heat pump rollout remain slightly below what is needed and the tree planting rate from last year may not be sustained without further support, so the Committee says that action must accelerate. 

Priority recommendations in the report include taking measures to make electricity cheaper. The UK’s high electricity costs are linked to reliance on volatile global gas prices, and bills are also increased by levies that support renewable energy and other low carbon efforts. These disproportionately affect electricity bills, rather than gas bills, helping to make electricity artificially more expensive compared with gas.

The report also calls for a range of measures across different sectors. The most directly linked to road transport is the call to effectively deliver rapid expansion of the low carbon electricity system.

The report highlights the importance of decarbonising the transport and heating sectors which are now the highest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Professor Piers Forster, said:  “The UK can be proud of our progress in reducing emissions. We’ve cut them by over 50% since 1990. Our country is among a leading group of economies demonstrating a commitment to decarbonise society. This is to be celebrated: delivering deep emissions reduction is the only way to slow global warming.

“However, the Government needs to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills. Given increasingly unstable geopolitics, it is also important to get off unreliable fossil fuels and onto homegrown, renewable energy as quickly as possible.

“The fossil fuel era is over – cheap, clean electricity is our future.”

Related Links

< Back to news list