In Focus: Zero Action on Net Zero? UK Political Shifts on Climate Commitments
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058241260784 |
| Author | Benjamin D. Hennig |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
18 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2024
Prime Minister Boris Johnson
made the opening speech to
the COP26 climate summit in
Glasgow in November 2021, but
his words feel like a political lifetime ago,
almost forgotten in the face of current
climate policies in Britain. While few
of Johnson’s speeches resulted in the
introduction or implementation of major
new policy initiatives, his tenure was still
one of proactive rhetoric on climate change
action. This provided some continuity in
what started as pioneering climate change
legislation in the 2008 Climate Change Act.
The 2008 Climate Change Act was passed
under a Labour government with broad
support across the political parties. It is
widely credited as being the rst legally
binding specic carbon reduction target in
the world. It set out an 80 per cent reduction
in carbon emissions compared to 1990
levels. Ten years after its introduction, the
Climate Change Act was described in a
report produced by the Grantham Research
Institute on Climate Change and the
Environment as having been instrumental
in advancing climate actions and reducing
emissions especially in the power sector,
without impacting economic growth. An
Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) assessment
noted that the legislation contributed to
reducing the country’s gross greenhouse
gas emissions by 26 per cent between 2010
and 2019, while the economy grew by 17
per cent in the same period.
The 2015 Paris Agreement, a legally
binding treaty on climate change signed
by the UK that came into force in 2016,
made reform of the Climate Change Act
necessary. A new commitment to limit
the rise in global temperatures to well
below 2°C required that emissions be
reduced by at least 100 per cent of 1990
levels by 2050. This became known as
the 'net zero' target. This target to bring
all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero
by 2050 was implemented under Theresa
May’s premiership in an amendment to the
Climate Change Act in 2019, again with
broad support across the political spectrum.
Achieving a carbon-neutral economy is
a dicult but achievable goal. The journey
to net zero includes vigorous eorts to
reduce carbon emissions and equally
robust initiatives for active greenhouse gas
removals (GGR), recognising that emissions
will continue to be a part of economic
activities. Moving away from today’s levels
of greenhouse gas emissions requires
reductions across all sectors, as well as
increases in GGR to oset the emissions that
would still be released.
In this scenario, a reduction from today’s
emissions levels of just below 400 metric
tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e),
Benjamin D. Hennig explores the changing politics of Britain’s net
zero commitments.
‘It’s one minute to midnight on that
Doomsday Clock and we need to act now.’
shown as the large dark grey bubble in the
graphic for this feature, down to below
100 MtCO2e by 2050, as shown in the top
cluster of bubbles split by emissions within
each main sector. The then still existent
emissions need to be compensated through
GGR measures. Such measures barely exist
in signicant volumes currently (see the
small blue bubble below). A major share
of the required future emissions builds on
carbon capture and storage technology,
and therefore relies on the deployment of
technologies that are in part still immature.
A 2018 report by the Royal Society estimates
that maximum feasible GGR deployment
could lead to a removal of up to 130
MtCO2e by 2050 in the UK. This is more than
would be needed were all the ambitious
reduction measures of the UK2050 scenario
shown in this graphic put into action.
While this scenario shows that achieving
net zero is possible, bridging the gap
between the current position and the target
is a signicant challenge. It demands bold
political actions that ensure substantial cuts
in emissions and enhance eorts to remove
greenhouse gases at a comparable scale.
The net zero commitment was initially
driven by a combination of environmental
concerns, international pressure, and the
desire to lead in the global shift towards
sustainable energy technologies. The
commitment received broad support across
the political spectrum and found increasing
consensus in society, too. However, the
practical application of this commitment has
continued to spark debate and controversy.
Since the Climate Change Act was passed,
emissions have been declining successfully
at a rate set out in the ve-year carbon
In Focus
Zero Action on Net Zero?
UK Political Shifts on
Climate Commitments
Political Insight June 2024 BU.indd 18Political Insight June 2024 BU.indd 18 23/05/2024 15:2823/05/2024 15:28
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