Miliband Signs UK Up to 87% Emissions Cut by 2040

It will be devastating

The Government has signed up to a legally binding target to cut the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions by 87% by 2040, Ed Miliband has announced.

The rather bland press release from the DESNZ states:

Families and businesses across the UK will continue to reap the benefits of the clean energy transition, as the Government sets a new emissions target to further protect family finances, grow the economy and tackle the climate crisis.

As Britain faces its second fossil fuel price shock in five years due to the war in Iran, the Government is pursuing policies which deliver tangible improvements to the lives of working people – centred on getting Britain off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets and onto clean homegrown power.

Today (Tuesday June 2nd) the Government has set out its proposed level for the seventh Carbon Budget, which sets a science-led target of ~87% emissions reduction in the period 2038 to 2042 – endorsed by the Environmental Audit Committee and the Climate Change Committee.

It comes as an independent report from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, supported by analysis from the Confederation of British Industries Economics, today shows that the Net Zero economy supports over one million jobs in the UK, adding £105 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2025 alone, as it continues to thrive as one of the UK’s fastest- growing economic sectors.

The new target is based on evidence-based assumptions about how the country will take a consumer choice-led approach to the adoption of technologies such as solar, batteries and EVs that will cut bills for families.

It all sounds bureaucratic and, of course, it’s all for our own good. The reality, though, is that the plan, which needs Parliamentary approval, will change our lives radically and for the worse. DESNZ’s talk about “consumer choice-led” is sheer hypocrisy and is the opposite of the truth.

The cut of 87% is measured from 1990 levels, but in practical terms it means a reduction of 74% from current emissions.