Meat and hybrids targeted as UK is set 78% emissions cut by 2035

CUTTING out meat, banning hybrid car sales and ending the use of gas boilers ‘all need to happen’ for the UK to meet tough new emissions targets.

Climate experts said greenhouse gases should be slashed by nearly fourfifths by 2035, signalling big changes to home heating, travelling and diets.

Sales of gas boilers should be halted by 2033, new fossil-fuelled car sales – including hybrids – should end in 2032, and people should be encouraged to cut the amount of meat and dairy they eat by a fifth in the next decade.

The Climate Change Committee said the moves are among those needed to meet its recommended target for the UK to cut emissions by

8 per cent by 2035 on 1990 levels, as part of the sixth ‘carbon budget’ covering climate action in 2033-3 .

It represents a major increase in ambition in UK climate efforts but the committee’s chairman Lord Deben – who famously fed his fouryear-old daughter Cordelia a burger at the height of mad cow disease fears in 1990 (pictured) – insisted it is ‘realistic and affordable’.

It also offers a chance to boost economic recovery after the pandemic, he said.

‘We have to do it to protect the planet, but we are having to do it to renew our own economy, and we can do it at a price that is manifestly reasonable. ‘It will be the private sector that will do much of the investment, but it will be the government that will set the tone,’ he added. Investment of £50billion a year by 2030 will be required, most of which will come from the private sector. But over time savings in fuel costs will offset most of the spending. The 2035 target is almost as tough as the previous long term goal of 80 per cent cuts by 2050, which was in place before the net zero law was passed in June last year.