The report identifies the areas of transport, heating systems, power generation, market regulation, engaging local authorities as well as individual consumers, as the first access points where things need to move.

Weighing most heavily on committee members’ minds was transport, which is now the largest-emitting sector in the economy.

To meet the UK’s ambitious plan, it is vital to bring forward a proposed ban on sales of new conventional cars and vans to 2035 at the latest, the report says. Crucially, this should include both hybrid and internal combustion engines.

Moreover, it would be essential for the Government “not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emissions versions”.

In an interview with E&T earlier this year, Greg Archer, director at Transport and Environment and previously director of Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, explained that too many low-carbon solutions could be counterproductive to attempts to channel investment into a solution that would work on a larger scale, and that the automotive lobby would not be helpful in this regard.

An E&T investigation into UK local authority data earlier in the year investigated the relationship between vehicle ownership and carbon emissions.

Issues with heating

Another key issue the committee comments on is heating and energy efficiency, highlighting that heating still accounts for a third of of emissions and that this has remained unchanged since 2009.

Decarbonisation of heating would be critical to achieving long-term emission-reduction targets, but uncertainty around the best mix would jeopardise those targets. The demand for the Government is “to commit now to large-scale trials of low-carbon heating technologies”.

Already under the 80 per cent emission reduction target, research demanded significant retrofitting changes. A report by the IET and Nottingham Trent University last year urged that homes must be retrofitted with improved insulation to reduce carbon emissions from heating appliances.

The committee has also brought forward a list of measure it believes would battle emission reduction in the most effective way.

These include cutting the number of vehicles on the road, via promoting and improving public transport, lowering cost relative to private transport, and encouraging vehicle usership instead of ownership, as well as encouraging and supporting increased levels of walking and cycling.

Criticism of the report came from the AA, which told journalists that the committee “underestimated the power of new technology to solve pollution in cars”.

A response to the report was also issued by the Government, which said it would “consider the committee’s findings.”

“From transport to heating, electricity to agriculture, we are working to put in place the right measures to help us tackle global warming. We welcome the committee’s report and will consider its findings. We are going further and faster to tackle climate change than any other major economy having legislated for net-zero emissions by 2050,” a a government spokesperson commented. 

On transport and heating, similar conclusions to those by the committee were drawn by a review by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, published in July: “We consider the Strategy’s goal of accelerating the pace of clean growth, and build on the comprehensive, quantitative analysis by the Committee on Climate Change. We agree that major improvements in energy productivity in businesses, transport and homes are crucial to achieving this goal.”

In its report, the Science and Technology Committee also cautions that electric cars may not be the silver bullet that many are hoping for. High emissions from the manufacturing process are counterproductive to tackling climate change. An E&T investigation has found first-hand evidence of the effect that mining lithium – a major element of electric vehicle batteries – has on the environment of fragile countries.

Aviation, despite representing a major element of the global and national carbon emission budget, received little attention. At the LowCVP summit in July, Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change in the school of mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering at the University of Manchester, stressed that aviation should not be excluded from climate budget calculations.

In an interview with E&T, Anderson shared his experiences with the local council: “In Manchester, the local council owns half of Manchester airport. It is quite a big airport. They said we can’t factor that in. As a climate scientist, I can’t ignore that. So then we looked at aviation at a national level and found that that one sector takes up the largest part of the budge by that sector. The Mayor of Manchester seemed not to be happy when told that their actual target would be 40 times harder to achieve when aviation would be factored in. The lesson is that we can’t leave things out and this makes it harder for all the sectors.”

The report identifies the areas of transport, heating systems, power generation, market regulation, engaging local authorities as well as individual consumers, as the first access points where things need to move.

Weighing most heavily on committee members’ minds was transport, which is now the largest-emitting sector in the economy.

To meet the UK’s ambitious plan, it is vital to bring forward a proposed ban on sales of new conventional cars and vans to 2035 at the latest, the report says. Crucially, this should include both hybrid and internal combustion engines.

Moreover, it would be essential for the Government “not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emissions versions”.

In an interview with E&T earlier this year, Greg Archer, director at Transport and Environment and previously director of Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, explained that too many low-carbon solutions could be counterproductive to attempts to channel investment into a solution that would work on a larger scale, and that the automotive lobby would not be helpful in this regard.

An E&T investigation into UK local authority data earlier in the year investigated the relationship between vehicle ownership and carbon emissions.

Issues with heating

Another key issue the committee comments on is heating and energy efficiency, highlighting that heating still accounts for a third of of emissions and that this has remained unchanged since 2009.

Decarbonisation of heating would be critical to achieving long-term emission-reduction targets, but uncertainty around the best mix would jeopardise those targets. The demand for the Government is “to commit now to large-scale trials of low-carbon heating technologies”.

Already under the 80 per cent emission reduction target, research demanded significant retrofitting changes. A report by the IET and Nottingham Trent University last year urged that homes must be retrofitted with improved insulation to reduce carbon emissions from heating appliances.

The committee has also brought forward a list of measure it believes would battle emission reduction in the most effective way.

These include cutting the number of vehicles on the road, via promoting and improving public transport, lowering cost relative to private transport, and encouraging vehicle usership instead of ownership, as well as encouraging and supporting increased levels of walking and cycling.

Criticism of the report came from the AA, which told journalists that the committee “underestimated the power of new technology to solve pollution in cars”.

A response to the report was also issued by the Government, which said it would “consider the committee’s findings.”

“From transport to heating, electricity to agriculture, we are working to put in place the right measures to help us tackle global warming. We welcome the committee’s report and will consider its findings. We are going further and faster to tackle climate change than any other major economy having legislated for net-zero emissions by 2050,” a a government spokesperson commented. 

On transport and heating, similar conclusions to those by the committee were drawn by a review by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, published in July: “We consider the Strategy’s goal of accelerating the pace of clean growth, and build on the comprehensive, quantitative analysis by the Committee on Climate Change. We agree that major improvements in energy productivity in businesses, transport and homes are crucial to achieving this goal.”

In its report, the Science and Technology Committee also cautions that electric cars may not be the silver bullet that many are hoping for. High emissions from the manufacturing process are counterproductive to tackling climate change. An E&T investigation has found first-hand evidence of the effect that mining lithium – a major element of electric vehicle batteries – has on the environment of fragile countries.

Aviation, despite representing a major element of the global and national carbon emission budget, received little attention. At the LowCVP summit in July, Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change in the school of mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering at the University of Manchester, stressed that aviation should not be excluded from climate budget calculations.

In an interview with E&T, Anderson shared his experiences with the local council: “In Manchester, the local council owns half of Manchester airport. It is quite a big airport. They said we can’t factor that in. As a climate scientist, I can’t ignore that. So then we looked at aviation at a national level and found that that one sector takes up the largest part of the budge by that sector. The Mayor of Manchester seemed not to be happy when told that their actual target would be 40 times harder to achieve when aviation would be factored in. The lesson is that we can’t leave things out and this makes it harder for all the sectors.”