Sir Keir Starmer unveiled yet another green target yesterday – triggering warnings that people will have to give up meat and dairy or replace their gas boilers to meet it.
The Prime Minister announced the goal to reduce emissions at the UN climate summit Cop29 – but vowed that he would not tell people how to live their lives.
The pledge to cut UK greenhouse gas emissions by 81 per cent by 2035 is in line with the recommendation from independent advisers the Climate Change Committee (CCC). However, they said that this goal could only be met by people reducing meat and dairy consumption and travel.
Asked whether this would be the cost of the new target yesterday, the Prime Minister said: ‘What we’re not going to do is start telling people how to live their lives. We’re not going to start dictating to people what they do.’
Asked again whether it was really possible to meet the goal without people changing their lifestyles, he said: ‘Yes, of course it is.’
Keir Starmer committed the UK to a massive cut in carbon emissions at the COP29 summit on Tuesday
The goal could only be met by people reducing meat and dairy consumption and travel, according to the Climate Change Committee (file image)
The Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev insisted countries should not be embarrassed about selling fossil fuels
The PM is one of the only premiers from the wealthiest nations in Azerbaijan for the annual gathering. Pictured, a woman attendee poses with the COP29 sign
Asked about the CCC’s recommendations, he said: ‘The target is my target and the plan is my plan, I’m not borrowing from somebody’s else’s plan.’
But the Tories warned yesterday that the pledge will lead to ‘sacrifice and hardship’ and would require a shift away from foods with a high carbon footprint and petrol and diesel vehicles.
During energy questions yesterday, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho told MPs that the pledge made the UK’s ‘already stringent carbon emission targets even higher’.
‘That’s despite the fact that we’re only one per cent of global emissions, and whilst the leaders of the world’s highest emitting countries, making up over 60per cent of emissions, are not attending,’ she added.
‘The Climate Change Committee has said this target will require, for an example, an accelerated shift away from meat and dairy, less travel and a gas boiler ban for the British people, and yet the Government’s approach would see our reliance on Chinese imports – a country which is 60per cent powered by coal – go through the roof.
‘So does the Minister agree that an approach which is asking for more sacrifice and hardship from the British people in return for more goods from one of the world’s largest carbon emitters would mean less jobs in Britain and more carbon in the atmosphere?’
Sir Keir was also asked if he was ‘disappointed’ that there were so few leaders of major world countries present at the Cop29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The heads of the biggest polluters were notably absent, including Chinese premier Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden and Indian PM Narendra Modi, while many EU leaders also stayed away.
A file image of oil rigs on the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan
A file image of a drilling site in Baku. Azerbaijan has deep stocks of fossil fuels
Countries will also be grappling with Donald Trump’s (pictured) return to the White House
But Sir Keir insisted that the UK was there to ‘show leadership’ and said he wanted to be ‘ahead of the game’ rather than ‘in the middle of the pack’.
‘The race is on for the clean energy jobs of the future, the economy of tomorrow,’ he said.
The summit’s location in Azerbaijan has also prompted world leaders to stay away due to human rights concerns.
Its president Ilham Aliyev yesterday said that oil was a ‘gift of God’ and its Cop chief executive was filmed promoting fossil fuel deals.
There have been fears that the Cop summit will be overshadowed by the election of Donald Trump who has threatened to pull out of the historic Paris agreement to limit global warming by reducing emissions.
The 81per cent target, which is based on reducing emissions compared with 1990 levels, forms the UK’s latest formal commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, when the CCC set the goal for 2035, it detailed a series of changes that would need to be made to life in the UK to achieve it.
Keir Starmer, pictured holding a financial roundtable, insisted Britain can show the way on climate change as he attended the the COP29 summit today
Sir Keir is laying out a target for the UK to slash 81 per cent off carbon emissions by 2035, compared to 1990 levels
These included phasing out gas boilers by 2033 and ending sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles including hybrids by 2032.
It also said that around 10per cent of emissions savings would come from areas such as encouraging people to reduce meat and dairy consumption, slower growth in flights, reductions in car travel and cutting waste.
The UN’s climate change chief Simon Stiell hailed the plans, saying they set a powerful example to other G20 nations.
Charities and academics also welcomed the goal, but cautioned that the Government would need a proper plan to meet the target.
Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF, said the UK had positioned itself as a climate leader but said it needed to back up the target with ‘solid and credible delivery plans’.
Dr Caterina Brandmayr, from the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, said the target was ‘what the world needs’ but said it needed to back it up with strong policy and investment plans to show it was serious.
Ms Coutinho later said: ‘The Climate Change Committee has said Keir Starmer’s new target would mean Brits would need to eat less meat and travel less by air and car.
‘This is on top of Ed Miliband’s mad approach to energy which is going to send bills soaring. All that would happen is that we would end up importing more from China, the world’s largest polluter.’It makes no sense for the climate, the economy or for the British people.’
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