Net zero inequality ‘biggest challenge’ for Government, says top climate adviser

Chris Stark of the Climate Change Committee said those with electric cars and heat pumps are benefiting more than those who cannot afford to switch.

Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation (Nicholas Ansell/PA) (PA Wire)

Inequality between those who can afford to buy electric cars and heat pumps and those who cannot is one of the biggest challenges facing Government in the drive to net zero, one of the country’s top climate advisers has said.

Electricity produced by oil and gas is far more expensive than that produced by solar or wind and an increase in the price of fossil fuels this last year is one of the main causes of the rocketing energy bills and societal inflation that has been affecting many households in the UK.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and adviser to the Government on its net zero strategy, said people will often choose the greener option if it is cheaper and they are well-informed about the choices.

He said richer households that can afford electric cars and to install heat pumps in their homes are getting cheaper energy than those who cannot.

Addressing this will help to redistribute wealth as going net zero will result in “big savings” to the economy and households, he told MPs on Wednesday.

If you are rich enough to afford a heat pump and drive your Tesla, you can escape many of the charges that others in society cannot

Chris Stark, Climate Change Committee

Speaking to the Environmental Audit Committee, he said: “If you look at this in aggregate, at the whole economy scale, what you see is that net zero increasingly moves to being something that does not carry a long-term cost.

“It carries a big investment challenge, but with big savings to the economy.

“And actually, that’s a very appealing distributional challenge, because you’re not just distributing costs in that kind of scenario, you’re also distributing the benefits.

“And it’s the benefit distribution more than anything right now that strikes me as being the greatest inequality.

“If you are rich enough to afford a heat pump and drive your Tesla, you can escape many of the charges that others in society cannot. And that is for me the biggest of the policy challenges that we face in net zero.”

In September, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he would delay the ban on selling new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035 and that 20% of households will be exempt from a new gas boiler ban, arguing that he does not want to burden ordinary people with the costs of going net zero.

Mr Stark said he worried that these policy changes send the wrong signal to consumers, that the Government is backing off on its commitment to net zero.

The Government has said it is confident that the net zero by 2050 target will be met, which means balancing the emissions put out with those removed from the atmosphere either through natural or technological means.

It also maintains it is on track to meet the sixth carbon budget, which is a plan published every five years on how the Government is going to decarbonise the economy on the way to net zero.

This year is the beginning of the fourth carbon budget, which the CCC has said it is confident will be fulfilled, with the sixth set to commence in the mid-2030s.

The Government has over the years been very good at publishing assumptions about how it sees emissions reductions happening, more so than any other country in the world I think

Chris Stark, Climate Change Committee

The Environmental Audit Committee wanted the Government to publish an assessment of how Mr Sunak’s recent policy changes would affect the progress towards net zero but was told it was not appropriate to do so.

Mr Stark said: “I don’t want to sit before you and just bash the Government because I think it’s important to say this – that the Government has over the years been very good at publishing assumptions about how it sees emissions reductions happening, more so than any other country in the world I think.

“We have memoranda of understanding with the officials and analysts across Government and we share our analysis with them too.

“So that gives me a lot of confidence that the analysts involved in this know what they’re doing. And it is for that reason that I’m disappointed that we haven’t seen those updated numbers.”