Ministers urged to do more to cut emissions and create ‘green’ jobs
THE UK must go “faster and further” to tackle climate change and loss of nature and rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, a report says.
Ministers must also make sure efforts to shift to a low carbon economy are fairer to those whose jobs and communities are most hit by the change, the Environmental Justice Commission has said.
There should be greater efforts to cut emissions by 2030 and an additional £30 billion a year of public money should be invested to cut emissions from the economy, generate green jobs, protect nature and improve people’s lives, it added.
As a first step to help recover from the pandemic, public money should be invested in “shovel-ready” green projects that will generate jobs and deliver other benefits, the commission, launched by think-tank
‘A vital opportunity to fix a model that is failing the vast majority of people.’
IPPR, said. These include a national programme to insulate homes and cut fuel poverty, treeplanting projects and schemes to restore peatland that will also boost nature, and investment in an electric vehicle charging network which will help tackle air pollution.
Before the pandemic, the UK was already set to fall short on targets to tackle climate change in the next decade – and those targets only put the country on track to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
But the legal goal for “net zero” emissions requires a 100 per cent reduction in pollution overall by mid-century.
The commission is calling for the Government to commit to a tougher interim target for 2030, of 66-69 per cent emissions reductions from 1990 levels, compared to the current equivalent target of 61 per cent.
Its co-chair, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, said: “The good news is that decarbonising our economy and restoring nature offers us a vital opportunity to fix an economic model that is not only driving environmental destruction, but also failing the vast majority of people across the UK.
“We can build back better – but only if we embed an agenda of rapid decarbonisation within a broader social and economic justice agenda.”