Ministers under fire after revealing strategy to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will not emerge until end of year

‘It doesn’t really smack of a government treating this issue as a climate emergency’

Ministers are under fire after revealing their strategy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will not be released until the end of the year.

It means the plans – which will require huge and potentially unpopular changes to transport, energy and agriculture – will only emerge more than a year after the legal commitment was made.

“If this is true, it doesn’t really smack of a government treating this issue as a climate emergency,” said Clive Lewis, Labour’s Treasury spokesman and a leadership candidate.

And Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat climate emergency spokesperson, pointing to the wildfire crisis in Australia, said: “While the world is waking up to the dangers of climate change, this Tory government is still on holiday.

“Without a proper plan of how to get to net zero, the Conservative’s pledges are empty.”

The government had already been fiercely criticised for lacking urgency and practical solutions for tackling the climate emergency, in announcements so far.

The climate crisis was barely mentioned by Boris Johnson during the election campaign and he boycotted the Channel 4 debate on the issue – when he was replaced by a melting ice sculpture.

Previously, ministers had suggested a roadmap to net zero would be published “during” 2020, with the March budget seen as a possible date for taking tough decisions.

But, speaking in the Commons – while claiming the UK was a “world leader” in reducing emissions – Treasury minister Simon Clarke said a review would take until “this autumn”.

It also puts the announcement slap up against the crucial United Nations climate change summit taking place in Glasgow in mid-November, which will put the UK in the international spotlight.

Ms Hobhouse added: “The UK has the opportunity to lead the world with meaningful action. Instead we have dither and delay with what looks like no time for MPs to scrutinise government plans before the [climate change conference].”

Last April, the government’s independent advisers recommended the target to end the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050, the toughest of the major economies.

And it set out the likely necessary measures, including an earlier ban on petrol and diesel cars, an end to gas boilers, huge investment in green energy, or sharp curbs to meat-eating.

Theresa May then won the plaudits for pushing through the legal duty to end net emissions by the middle of the century – but left the action plan to her successor.

During Treasury questions, Mr Clarke, the exchequer secretary, said Mr Johnson had set up a new cabinet committee on climate change because it “takes its responsibilities very seriously”.

He then said: “Later this year, the government will be setting out further plans to reduce emissions in key sectors such as transport, energy and buildings while seizing the economic benefits of clean growth.

“We have launched a review into the transition into a net zero economy, how that will be funded, and that review will publish its findings this autumn.”

The target is net zero because air travel and farming are viewed as unavoidable by 2050, but carbon from those activities would be taken out of the air by growing trees or burying carbon dioxide.