UK ‘on track’ to meet ‘challenging’ net zero target, minister declares

Published

4 years ago

August 9, 2021

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The UK is “on track” to meet its “challenging” target of hitting net zero emissions by 2050, a minister has told Sky News.

“I think it’s challenging, but I think we are on track, I think we’re doing quite well,” Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told Kay Burley about the goal.

“If you look, since 1990 we’ve reduced our emissions by 45% and we’ve managed to grow the economy by 80%, this is a world-beating figure.”

He added: “It’s 2021 now, I think there’s every chance we will hit the target.

“It’s a lot of work and I think we can do that … it is challenging, it’s not an easy thing, if it were an easy thing we wouldn’t be going on about it.”

Mr Kwarteng was speaking ahead of the release of a landmark United Nations review into climate change.

This found that heatwaves, flooding and droughts will be more frequent and more intense as the world is set to hit the 1.5C global warming limit in the next 20 years.

The milestone scientific assessment says the rate of warming in the last 2,000 years has been “unprecedented” and it was “unequivocal” that human influence is already responsible for 1.1C of global warming since 1850.

Every inhabited region on Earth is already impacted by climate change and the report found that the accepted 1.5C limit will be met even in the best case scenario, causing more regular extreme weather events.

Boris Johnson said the report “makes for sobering reading” and shows “the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet”.

“We know what must be done to limit global warming – consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline,” the prime minister said.

“The UK is leading the way, decarbonising our economy faster than any country in the G20 over the last two decades.

“I hope today’s IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit.”

But Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said Mr Johnson “still can’t make his mind up whether he cares about the climate or not”.

“The UK should lead the world in tackling the climate emergency, instead we’re showing other countries that climate inaction is acceptable,” he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer added: “The IPCC report is the starkest reminder yet that the climate crisis is here right now and is the biggest long-term threat we face. The biggest threat we now face is not climate denial but climate delay.”

Ahead of COP26 gathering later this year, the climate minister has come in for criticism for travelling by plane to 30 countries in seven months.

Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting told Sky News on Monday that the travel was “not a good look”.

“They [the public] want the government to take action, but we can’t have a ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ mantra, ‘One rule for them, one rule for everyone else’ mantra coming from the government, because we’ve got to take the country with us,” the shadow child poverty secretary said.

“We have all got to play our part.”

The business secretary defended Mr Sharma’s foreign travel however, arguing that “if you’re trying to conduct international diplomacy, if you’re trying to build trust with other people, I think face-to-face meetings are critical for that”.

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“COP26 is a big international event, it’s probably the biggest international event of international diplomacy that we’ve hosted in decades and he has to go and forge those alliances, he has to build networks, he has to deliver on people’s commitments and that does involve foreign travel,” Mr Kwarteng said.

He added that Zoom “has its limitations”, saying: “I think it’s effective in some quarters, but if you’re trying to conduct international diplomacy, if you’re trying to build trust with other people, I think face-to-face meetings are critical for that.”

Sky News has launched the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.

The Daily Climate Show is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

Hosted by Anna Jones, it follows Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.

The show also highlights solutions to the crisis and how small changes can make a big difference.

Politics

China Merchants Bank tokenizes $3.8B fund on BNB Chain in Hong Kong

Published

6 hours ago

October 15, 2025

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China Merchants Bank tokenizes .8B fund on BNB Chain in Hong Kong

CMBI’s tokenization initiative with BNB Chain builds on its previous work with Singapore-based DigiFT, which tokenized its fund on Solana in August.

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

Published

10 hours ago

October 15, 2025

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.

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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.

She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.

Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.

Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.

Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”

She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.

What’s facing Reeves?

Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.

Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.

The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.

Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.

‘I won’t duck challenges’

In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.

“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.

“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”

She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.

“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”

Blame it on the B word?

Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.

This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.

The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.

“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.

“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”

Politics

Crypto maturity demands systematic discipline over speculation

Published

15 hours ago

October 15, 2025

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Crypto maturity demands systematic discipline over speculation

Unlimited leverage and sentiment-driven valuations create cascading liquidations that wipe billions overnight. Crypto’s maturity demands systematic discipline.