Sir Keir Starmer must slash electricity bills by axing renewable charges, advisers say
Rapid progress needed to make up lost ground on climate action, advisers warn.
Sir Keir Starmer must make electricity cheaper by removing levies that pay for renewables, advisers have urged.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) set out 10 priority actions the new Government should take this year, including making electricity cheaper by axing charges for insulation and fuel poverty from electricity bills.
Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the Climate Change Committee, said: “The transition to net zero can deliver investment, lower bills and energy security. It will help the UK keep its place on the world stage.
“It is a way for this Government to serve both the people of today and the people of tomorrow.
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Only a third of the emissions reductions needed to meet the UK’s first net zero-aligned target, its international commitment to cut emissions by 68% on 1990 levels by 2030, are covered by “credible” plans, the statutory body warned.
The committee said the UK had a successful track record of cutting emissions, with greenhouse gases down by half since 1990, and there were significant reductions in pollution in 2023.
But the previous Government sent “inconsistent messages”, signalled a slowing of pace and reversed or delayed key policies last year.
Rapid progress is needed to make up lost ground, according to the committee in its legally mandated annual report to Parliament.
The committee’s acting chief executive Dr James Richardson said: “These rollbacks were unhelpful, they will slow progress, they don’t help households with high energy costs nor do they help the UK energy security.
“To do that we need to accelerate the move away from fossil fuels.”
He added that reversing the rollbacks would save people money, either today or at the point where those changes take place.
The report comes against a backdrop of rising climate impacts, with the wettest 18 months on record in England hitting agricultural production, as well as falling costs of key low-carbon technologies and a global scramble to secure investment to drive economic growth.
