Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what targets the Government has set for the UK to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and if he will make a statement.

The UK was the first country to introduce long-term, legally binding emission reduction targets through the Climate Change Act 2008, which set a 2050 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% relative to 1990 levels. The Act also introduced carbon budgets which cap emissions over successive 5-year periods and must be set 12 years in advance.

The UK carbon budgets already set in legislation are among the most stringent in the world. The level of each Carbon Budget is set out in the table below. Carbon budgets cover a range of greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide, measured in million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e).

Following the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5°C in October 2018, the Government commissioned its independent experts, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), to provide their advice on the implications of the Paris Agreement for the UK’s long-term emissions reduction targets, including on setting a net-zero target. The CCC’s advice is due on 2 May and we will consider it carefully when it is received.