Key climate schemes trumpeted as part of the government’s net zero strategy are likely to fail, ministers were told before last week’s “green day” announcements. A leaked document by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveals that officials told ministers they were not confident that key policies announced on Thursday — including tree planting, peat restoration and recycling targets — were realistic. The ten-page advisory document — marked “not public facing” — was produced on February 20 for Grant Shapps, the energy security and net zero secretary. It assessed the “delivery risk” and “delivery confidence” of each of the net zero measures proposed by Defra, which is run by Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary. Each was assessed with a traffic-light scale of green, amber and red. Of 44 policies, 21 were marked red or red/amber, indicating they will be hard to achieve. These policies encompass about 85 per cent of Defra’s proposed emissions savings, indicating officials expect to fall well short of what they claim. A further 18 policies were marked as amber or amber/green, and only five were marked green, two of which disappeared from the final “carbon budget delivery plan” document published on Thursday. Defra has long been warned it has not pulled its weight when it comes to cutting carbon. Land use and agriculture, for which the department is responsible, accounts for 12 per cent of UK carbon emissions. If the UK is to hit its net zero targets, this sector must reduce its emissions by two thirds. Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, the government’s independent climate advisory body, said his team was assessing the plans but that the agricultural policies looked weak.
Times 4th April 2023 read more »
