Government commits to 87% cut in UK’s climate emissions by 2040

The Government has signed up to a legal target to cut the UK’s planet-heating emissions by 87% by 2040, Ed Miliband has announced.

The reduction in greenhouse gases on 1990 levels – on the way to cutting climate pollution to zero overall by 2050, known as “net zero” – is in line with official advice from the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) on deliverable and cost-effective cuts.

But the Government’s commitment to the emissions target for the period 2038-2042, known as the seventh carbon budget, comes amid increasing political division over climate action, with Reform UK and the Tories promising to ditch net zero policies and back oil and gas drilling.

The CCC has said meeting the target will require households to install heat pumps instead of new boilers, switch to electric cars and vans and eat less meat and dairy, but families could save hundreds of pounds a year by mid century in the shift away from fossil fuels.