Meeting the UK net-zero target & Carbon Budgets

The UK has committed to a legally binding target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Progress towards this target will be based on a number of carbon budgets, which set a pathway to the net-zero target by way of 5-yearly downward steps. The UK carbon budgets compare emissions in each period with emissions in the base-year of 1990 – the same base-year on which international reporting is based.
 
The Climate Change Committee, the independent body which advises the Government on emissions targets and then monitors progress towards these, make recommendations to the Government about the level at which each carbon budget should be set. To date, the Government has legislated for each of the first 6 carbon budgets, which cover the years up to and including the 5-year period 2033-37. The first and second carbon budgets have already been met.​

The actual emissions shown in the table for the first three carbon budget periods represent the “net UK carbon account” for each period. Until 2020, the UK was a participant in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and the carbon account was adjusted to reflect trading of emissions allowances through the System. Any figures in the table for those years are therefore net of trading by UK installations in the EU ETS. Since 2021 however, the UK has ceased to participate in the EU ETS and no adjustments have been made for trading.

​​In order for the UK to stay on course to meet the net-zero target, there will need to be plans in place in respect of how to mitigate all existing sources of emissions. Some of these sources will be very difficult to address by 2050, and it may be possible for the UK to use appropriate offsetting mechanisms and develop new technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to reach net-zero. However, it would be unwise for the UK to assume that offsetting and new technologies are the solutions which will enable the 2050 target to be met, and rely on those methods alone.