The Government has announced that it has decided that surplus greenhouse gas emissions over the last five years (under the third carbon budget) will not be carried forward into the next carbon budget, which follows the advice of the independent Climate Change Committee.

The third carbon budget, which ran from 2018 to 2022, and was set in 2009, was over-delivered on the target by 15 per cent and some were worried that the extra headroom would be used by the Government to reduce emissions reduction targets.

By the end of the period in 2022, UK net greenhouse gas emissions were 50 per cent lower than the base year emissions, masking the UK the first major economy to halve its emissions since 1990, while also growing its economy by around 80 per cent.

The net UK carbon account was 2,152,791,393 tCO2e, 391,208,607 tCO2e (15 per cent) below the cap of 2,544,000,000 tCO2e. The average annual net UK carbon account across the third carbon budget period represents a 47 per cent reduction from base year emissions. By the end of the period in 2022, UK net greenhouse gas emissions were 50 per cent lower than the base year emissions.

Provisional data for 2023 show that the UK is on track to also over-perform in the fourth carbon budget period and is now halfway to its 2050 net-zero goal, the first major economy to be able to make this claim.

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