How the climate fight is coming into your home
Something has changed dramatically in your home in a way you won’t have even noticed.
The electricity in your plug socket no longer comes from coal, the workhorse of the industrial revolution that powered our economy for decades but which is also the most polluting fossil fuel.
Now it is generated by cleaner gas, renewable and nuclear power.
That shift has helped the UK cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% since 1990 – a world-leading feat – and you won’t have batted an eyelid.
That’s about to change.
The country’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), say in new advice today that emissions of greenhouse gases need to fall 87% by 2040.
Emissions need to fall by 87% by 2040, during the period covered by the ‘seventh carbon budget’, published today by the CCC
One third of those emissions cuts will come from decisions made by households.
While the first stage of the country’s national climate action has “gone largely unnoticed”, the next phase will be “a lot more difficult”, said Adam Berman from Energy UK, which represents energy suppliers.
“It’s going to be technically more difficult, it is going to be much more visceral and tangible to people in their everyday lives. It affects how they get to work, what they use to heat their homes and even diet.”
Experts say if we get it right, it will make our lives better with cleaner air and better public transport.
It would also shave hundreds of pounds off annual household bills.
But it depends on what the government does next to help people.
The way we travel
The two “most impactful” things households can do are replacing their car with an electric one and a gas boiler with a heat pump (only when they pack up, and not before), the advice said.
By 2040, the share of electric cars on the road needs to jump from 2.8% in 2023 to 80% in order to meet net zero, according to the recommendations, which the government is not obliged to accept.
They are already cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars, while the falling cost of batteries means EVs should finally cost the same upfront in the next three years.
The committee’s chief executive Emma Pinchbeck said: “Frankly, by the time a lot of people are going to be choosing a new car, the electric vehicle is just going to be the cheapest [option].”
The share of heat pumps must jump to 52%, while electric cars need to reach 80% by 2040, the CCC said
How we heat our homes
But while the switch to electric vehicles is powering ahead, the move to greener home heating has barely left the starting blocks.
Homes are currently the second highest-emitting sector in the UK economy, and much of that comes from the way we heat them.
The CCC today put to bed calls to keep gas boilers but run them on hydrogen, recommending there be “no role for hydrogen heating in residential buildings”.
Hydrogen is hard to produce in a green way, and so would be reserved for other sectors that have no other viable alternatives.
The government is yet to confirm this decision, which would dismay the gas networks and boiler manufacturers.
Instead, the advisers said people should eventually replace boilers with heat pumps, which run on electricity and work a bit like a fridge in reverse: grabbing and compressing warmth from the outside air and using it to heat your home.
Amid a political row over the costs of net zero, the analysis concluded these two switches could save households around £700 a year on heating bills and a further £700 on motoring costs.
Cutting down on meat and on excessive flying will also play an important, but smaller role they said.
The upfront investment will cost the equivalent of 0.2% of GDP, most of which would come from the private sector.
Overcoming the costs
But at the moment the benefits of these green switches are not spread fairly, and some people can’t access them at all.
The upfront costs of a heat pump – and home upgrades needed alongside – are “sizeable” and price out poorer households, even with current government subsidies, campaigners and the CCC said.
Zachary Leather, an economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said: “While politicians fret and argue about the cost of net zero, today’s report shows that there are long-term benefits for consumers and the environment.”
But the government needs to “get serious” about helping lower-income households to adopt heat pumps and EVs so they can save money too, he said.
Meanwhile, it is still cheaper for someone with a driveway to charge their EV than someone who charges theirs on the street – and electricity prices overall should be made cheaper to help people reap the benefits.
Mr Berman from Energy UK said: “All through the energy system there are these small examples that tend to mean working class households find it more expensive to take up low carbon alternatives.”
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Climate protesters confront Bill Gates
The energy transition is ‘not fair yet’
It also comes at a time of wavering support for climate action. While Labour was elected on a mandate to go faster on climate action, the Conservatives have retreated from green issues, and Reform UK wants to dismantle net zero altogether.
Mr Berman said a way to “resolve that question of public consent is to ensure we’re rolling out that infrastructure in a really, really fair and inclusive way. And we’re not there yet”.
The public are also confused about if, when and how to switch to these green technologies, and which government should tackle this with clearer guidance, the CCC said.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This advice is independent of government policy, and we will now consider it and respond in due course.
“It is clear that the best route to making Britain energy secure, bringing down bills and creating jobs is by embracing the clean energy transition. This government’s clean energy superpower mission is about doing so in a way that grows our economy and makes working people better off.
“We owe it to current generations to seize the opportunities for energy security and lower bills, and we owe it to future generations to tackle the existential climate crisis.”
Foreign state investors would be allowed to hold stakes of up to 15% in British national newspapers, ministers are set to announce amid a two-year battle to resolve an impasse over The Daily Telegraph’s ownership.
Sky News has learnt that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could announce as soon as Thursday that the new limit is to be imposed following a consultation lasting several months.
The decision to set the ownership threshold at 15% follows an intensive lobbying campaign by newspaper industry executives concerned that a permanent outright ban could cut off a vital source of funding to an already-embattled industry.
It would mean that RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi state-backed fund which owns an option to take full ownership of the Telegraph titles, would be able to play a role in the newspapers’ future.
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RedBird Capital, the US-based fund, has already said it is exploring the possibility of taking full control of the Telegraph, while IMI would have – if the status quo had been maintained – forced to relinquish any involvement in the right-leaning broadsheets.
One industry source said they had been told to expect a statement from Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, or another DCMS minister, this week, with the amendment potentially being made in the form of a statutory instrument.
Other than RedBird, a number of suitors for the Telegraph have expressed interest but struggled to raise the funding for a deal.
The most notable of these has been Dovid Efune, owner of The New York Sun, who has been trying for months to raise the £550m sought by RedBird IMI to recoup its outlay.
Another potential offer from Todd Boehly, the Chelsea Football Club co-owner, and media tycoon David Montgomery, has yet to materialise.
RedBird IMI paid £600m in 2023 to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine.
That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws – which banned any form of foreign state ownership – amid an outcry from parliamentarians.
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The Spectator was then sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
The UAE-based IMI, which is controlled by the UAE’s deputy prime minister and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, extended a further £600m to the Barclays to pay off a loan owed to Lloyds Banking Group, with the balance secured against other family-controlled assets.
Other bidders for the Telegraph had included Lord Saatchi, the former advertising mogul, who offered £350m, while Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail proprietor, pulled out of the bidding last summer amid concerns that he would be blocked on competition grounds.
The Telegraph’s ownership had been left in limbo by a decision taken by Lloyds Banking Group, the principal lender to the Barclay family, to force some of the newspapers’ related corporate entities into a form of insolvency proceedings.
The newspaper auction is being run by Raine Group and Robey Warshaw.
The DCMS declined to comment.
Burberry, the UK’s only global luxury brand, is to cut around 1,700 jobs worldwide over the next two years after reporting a steep financial loss.
The company lost £66m in pre-tax profit in the year ended in March as luxury goods sales fell across the world and the company weathered an “uncertain” environment and a “difficult macroeconomic backdrop”.
A year earlier, it recorded £383m in profit.
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It’s suffered in recent years with the share price falling to such an extent the business was removed from the FTSE 100, the index of most valuable companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Despite the financial performance, the company was upbeat, with chief executive Joshua Schulman saying “I am more optimistic than ever that Burberry’s best days are ahead and that we will deliver sustainable profitable growth over time”.
What cuts are being made?
The retailer did not specify any shop closures – in the past year, it closed 26 and also opened 26 stores – but did highlight shift cuts and consolidations.
“We don’t have a store closing programme, per see,” Mr Schulman told investors
The night shift at Burberry’s Castleford factory will be cut, it proposed, saying the shift has resulted in overproduction.
“Significant” investment in the facility will be made, however, as the ambition is to scale up British production “over time”, Mr Schulman said.
Changes to the retail network across the world will be made with shop staff being scheduled around “peak traffic”.
Burberry will be “realigning” shop staff, he said, “so that we can offer the best service” at the busiest times.
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There will also be a “simplification” of Burberry’s regional structure and a “rebalancing” of central and regional responsibilities to reduce duplication and “accelerate decision making” through the retail network.
But the majority of changes will be made to “office space teams” around the world, the CEO said.
Commercial and creative teams have already been consolidated, Burberry’s annual results said.
What’s gone wrong?
Aside from the global slowdown in luxury goods sales over recession fears, additional headwinds have come in the form of President Trump’s tariffs.
“Clearly, the external environment has become more challenging since mid-February”, Mr Schulman told investors.
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Trump’s tariffs: What you need to know
Tariff risks were higher than first planned, the annual results said.
It led the US market to be described by Mr Schulman as “choppy” since February when Mr Trump began announcing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, as well as on goods such as steel and cars.
Sales also fell in the Asia Pacific region by 16%, the results showed.
Criticism was levelled at the 2021 British government decision to withdraw VAT refunds for overseas visitors, “which has made the UK the least competitive destination in Europe for tourist shopping”, the results read.
“Business in our UK home market continues to be seriously impacted” by the move.
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