6th Carbon Budget to UK Net Zero Results in only 1% drop in GDP

I sat in on the 6th Carbon Budget reading yesterday and found the top-level analysis fascinating. The carbon budget seeks a 78% reduction in emissions by 2035, bringing the UK’s previous ambition of 80% reduction by 2050 forward by 15 years. And it’s possible with very little financial impact - in fact - it’s going to be great for our economy.

All the obvious and well-discussed here will be happening; renewables, heat pumps, energy efficiency, electric cars, planting trees, reduction in flight (but not so much) and behaviour change. And this will result in… drum roll… massive investment. Well, we knew that already :slight_smile:!

It’s great to see the world waking up and these ambitions being placed front and centre. We have no excuse now - the technology is mature, the economies of scale work, it just needs government backing and investment and it feels like it’s happening. It’s been an amazing year to see the ambition on the environment change - long may it continue!

This is a really cool graph - showing investment and savings - we only lose 1% on GDP before 2050, but it isn’t mapped after that - I imagine GDP falls quite quickly once we’ve retrofitted everything!

Here’s a link to the report but it’s 448 pages long!!! Better to watch the 2 hour introduction - below.