With the United Nations Climate Change Conference recently ending, Keir Starmer pledged the UK would reduce all emissions by 2035. This is revising the previous Conservative Government’s pledge, which was 78%.
This year’s Climate Change Conference had a wide gap in attendance, with Starmer being one of only seven leaders who showed up, with thirteen leaders being absent including the US. In 2023 the UK is estimated to have admitted 384.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, a decrease by 5.4% from the previous year. This falls in line with the steady decline of emission output from the UK.
Keir Starmer said that 81% mark was put in place after talks with the UK’s climate change committee. In line with this, the United Nations has released a warning that Earth’s temperature is set to rise 3.1°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century without further action and has implored other countries to match this target too. As per the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international treaty placed in combatting climate change, the UK’s set to follow its legally-binding carbon-cutting path to have net zero emissions by 2050. In addition to this, the Climate Change Act 2008 also has the UK set in legally-binding domestic agreements to place carbon budgets every five years up to 2050. Differently to the NDC, this also targets both international aviation, such as flights, and shipping emissions. With this aim to reach net zero by 2050, the UK has been moving from non-renewable energy to greener and more renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy. Although it has been warned by the CCC that without lifestyle changes it will be difficult to continue making these cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the UK is on set to reach both the 2035 and 2050 targets.
Starmer’s new policy is helping enforce this. Examples of these lifestyle changes include the UK moving away from both mass meat and dairy consumption and a change from petrol cars to other more sustainable sources of transport. Furthermore, the interim chair of the CCC, Professor Piers Foster said that with the UK’s national circumstances and the latest advancements in technology and science that the new 81% target is practical and achievable. The new and higher target is a massive step in the right direction when it comes to fighting climate change, especially in a climate of uncertainty about the world’s future.