How do we cut carbon and how fast can we go?

The 2019 Spectator Energy Summit opened with the chairman, Andrew Neil, listing the UK’s considerable achievements in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon emissions are 43 per cent lower today than they were in 1990 and Britain’s energy supply recently functioned without coal for over a fortnight – something it had not done for well over a century.

The UK has the best record of decarbonisation of any G20 country but, as Mr Neil noted, much of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked. On the morning of the summit, the UK’s energy mix was 61 per cent natural gas, over 20 per cent nuclear and only four per cent wind. Energy from renewables varies enormously (wind was providing 25 per cent the night before), but it is nevertheless noteworthy that Britain was getting more power from France when the summit began that it was getting from wind.

The Committee on Climate Change’s advisory target of net zero emissions by 2050 is not yet official government policy, but it seems only a matter of time before it is enshrined in legislation.