CCC writes to Boris Johnson
The Committee on Climate Change has written a powerful letter to the Prime Minister on 18 December to emphasise the urgency of the UK coordinating action to reduce climate change ahead of the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November 2020.
Please read the three page letter in full.
For those short on time, we highlight key paragraphs on the need to:
- Inject new urgency into the development and implementation of policy. It has been nearly seven months since the Net Zero target became law. Every day of inaction makes the challenge of cutting emissions harder and costlier. Technological innovation is only part of the answer. We must not wait for future technologies to solve the problems we can already tackle with known solutions.
on climate governance:
- Use all of the tools available. Public spending will play a role, but our analysis also points to the importance of strong market-shaping mechanisms. These include carbon pricing fiscal policies, but also regulatory tools which can often drive the transition more rapidly than price mechanisms alone.
on buildings:
- Buildings. An ambitious and properly funded strategy for entirely removing fossil fuels from the UK's building stock, with action beginning immediately and standards that set a clear path for the longer-term.
and on natural cooling:
- There is no policy to ensure the risk of overheating is reduced in homes, hospitals, schools or care homes. Building Regulations need to be strengthened to make sure adequate natural cooling (not air-conditioning) is built into properties, alongside energy efficiency.