Reaching net zero by 2050 will cost less than the economic hit of a fossil fuel price rise similar to the 2022 energy shock, the UK’s climate adviser said on Wednesday, as the country grapples with higher oil and gas prices.
The Climate Change Committee said modelling showed average household energy bills would jump by 59 per cent in the event of a price rise of the same magnitude as that seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, if fossil fuel reliance remained heavy.
By contrast, bills would rise by only 4 per cent in the “balanced pathway” towards cutting emissions, the committee found. Net zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century was the “more cost-effective path for the UK economy than continued reliance on fossil fuels”, it said.