The UK has made significant progress in reducing its carbon emissions over the last decade, and has led other major economies around the world in announcing ambitious climate targets, including a promise to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050. But despite the warm words, our actions currently leave us off track to meet this commitment, putting the global ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C at risk.
Lots of climate promises have been made: to keep the climate as safe as possible, to stop increasing carbon in the atmosphere (to get to net zero), to protect our forests, to make our money greener, and to work with nature to restore our one shared home. We won’t forget these promises – and the UN climate summit in Glasgow in November provided a unique opportunity to hold our leaders to account.
We’re calling for the UK government to urgently publish its long-term strategy for reaching net zero, along with a detailed action plan to show step-by-step how each sector of the economy will decarbonise – and then to start implementing it immediately.
We’ve developed a ‘Net-Zero Test’, which, if introduced, would require the UK Treasury to measure all spending and taxation decisions in budgets and spending reviews against commitments on climate and nature, ensuring the overall package keeps the nation on track to meet its goals.
In July, the government committed to working closely with regulators to encourage and support firms to publish net-zero transition plans. This followed a study we commissioned with Greenpeace which showed that some UK banks and investors were responsible for financing 805 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2019.
If the banks and investors in the study were a country, they would be the world’s ninth biggest carbon emitter – ahead of Germany. We’re now engaging with the finance sector, regulators and government on what these plans will look like, including how they take nature into account.
Together, we won’t forget. Help us demand that leaders keep their climate promises.
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Pledge your support to keep climate action on track by making sure the government keeps its promises.
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Make nature our climate hero
Nature can be one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change. We’re calling for urgent action from governments to limit global warming to 1.5ºC – with the help of nature-based solutions
