Ahead of COP26, the UK Government has submitted its Nationally Determined Contribution to global climate mitigation which requires a 45% reduction in UK emissions from 2018 to 2030. Even if all planned new generation is delivered on time, the government’s pledge can only be met with significant restraint across all sectors.
The government’s “Net Zero Strategy” released on 19th October 2021 describes big ambitions but small commitments. The total spending in the strategy is around 0.05% of GDP, and the delivery commitments add up to only a small fraction of the government’s pledge to COP26. The strategy places all its hope in technologies that don’t yet operate at all in the UK, fails to account for the new electricity demand created by its plans for greenhouse gas removal technologies and synthetic jet fuel, and includes no commitments on key areas such as rail electrification, reducing demand for aviation or reducing ruminant herds.