Targets do not reduce emissions,

CAPITALISM IS THE CAUSE

The government’s own advisers, the Committee on Climate Change  have declared themselves shocked that the UK has no proper plans for protecting people from heatwaves, flash flooding and other impacts of the climate crisis. The CCC’s annual progress reports, published on Wednesday, also found that just one of the 25 emissions-cutting policies it said were vital in 2018 had been delivered in full. The CCC said the targets for 2025 and 2030 were likely to be missed by an even bigger margin than last year.

The CCC assessed government plans for adaptation to the climate crisis in 33 priority areas. “There are no areas where government is planning properly,” said Chris Stark, the CCC chief executive. He said it would be prudent to prepare for a 4C rise, a level scientists see as catastrophic.

Lord Deben, who chairs the committee, said, “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army. We can’t possibly go on with this ramshackle system; it doesn’t begin to face the issues. It is a real threat to the population. You need to make real changes to protect people here and now from the climate change that we know is happening. We are not even preparing for 2C [rise in global temperature] let alone the position we might be in if the world does not [drive emissions down to zero]”.
The CCC said government funding for services to help regions, businesses and people adapt has ceased. The report says, and ministers have failed to start communicating with the public over the need for changes in behaviour, such as eating less meat and using less water.

MP Rachel Reeves, who chairs parliament’s business, energy and industrial strategy select committee, said: “The CCC reports show the government has failed dismally to back up its rhetoric with ambitious policies which deliver the cuts in emissions the UK needs to achieve.”

Doug Parr of Greenpeace UK said: “This is a truly brutal reality check on the government’s current progress in tackling the climate emergency. The new prime minister really must take the government’s net zero commitment and turn it into something practically meaningful.”