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 commitment will see heat pumps, electric cars and renewables rolled out across the country in a move the Government says will bring down bills and “upgrade lifestyles”.
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 “seventh carbon budget” emissions target for the period 2038-2042 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.
Energy Secretary Mr Miliband said the drive for clean homegrown power was the “only way” to protect family and business finances as he accused opponents of sticking their heads in the sand about climate breakdown and its impact on future generations.
The CCC has said meeting the target will require households to install heat pumps instead of new boilers, switch to electric cars and eat less meat and dairy, but families could save £1,400 a year by mid century in the shift away from fossil fuels for heating and driving.
A report by the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI’s) economics consultancy this week showed the UK’s net zero economy supports 1.1 million workers, from solar panel installers to electric car production line engineers, and delivered £105 billion in economic value in 2025.
Many households and businesses are already making the shift to clean tech, with the highest monthly deployment of solar panels in March for more than a decade and record monthly electric vehicle (EV) sales, figures show.
Mr Miliband said: “As Britain faces the second fossil fuel shock of the decade, the only way to protect family and business finances is to drive for clean homegrown power that we control.
“What has been achieved so far by businesses and communities across the country is a great British success story – cutting costs by upgrading homes, backing British businesses, supporting one million good jobs according to new analysis from CBI Economics, and protecting our beautiful countryside.
“Some people want to stick their heads in the sand and let our children face the consequences of climate breakdown – but this Government believes in the timeless British value of protecting our country for generations to come.”
The new target was backed by environmental campaigners, industry and professional bodies who said it would support investment in clean tech, boost energy security, create jobs and deliver healthy ecosystems that people relied on.
But there were calls for “clear direction” and consistent and ambitious policy signals to keep up momentum in investment.
The net zero target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero overall by 2050 on 1990 levels, with any residual pollution offset by carbon-capturing measures such as planting trees, is set under the landmark Climate Change Act, passed in 2008.
Under the Act, the government of the day must legislate for emissions caps for future five-yearly “budgets” on a strict timetable, with the seventh carbon budget due by the end of June.
Officials said a delivery plan setting out how the cuts would be delivered will be published as soon as practicable after Parliament has approved the budget.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused the Government of trying to “force through a new net zero target that will make us weaker, poorer and send everyone’s energy bills even higher”, saying it showed they were not putting the national interest first.
“The best thing for our economy, for growth and for cutting emissions, is to make electricity cheap,” she said.
Climate minister Katie White said she was “slightly baffled” as to why the Conservatives, who had championed the Climate Change Act through previous carbon budgets and implemented the net zero target, “at this stage would want to row back in the middle of a fossil fuel crisis”.
Ms White said she wanted to focus on where there was agreement, saying: “Let’s be serious, everybody agrees that electrification is the right way forward.
“The Climate Change Act has been grown-up politics that has been done very well.
“It secured long-term investment that is good for all of our communities and I really hope we get back to a place where we can agree on that.”
She told the Press Association that electrification – bringing in technology such as heat pumps in homes and electric cars – was the quickest way to bring down bills and changes to lives would be an upgrade.
“We are expecting an upgraded lifestyle in many ways, your homes will be cheaper to run, more comfortable,” she said, adding there would be co-benefits in tackling climate change such as improving air quality in cities.
While the CCC’s recommendations for meeting the seventh carbon budget included people making lifestyle choices such as eating less meat and dairy, Ms White said the Government would not be telling people what to eat from an environmental perspective.
“We’re focusing on those items in terms of decarbonising our homes, decarbonising surface transport.
“It’s around those big items, in which electrification is going to be the main area, where we reduce our bills and reduce our emissions, and it’s really exciting,” she said.
