UK CARBON NEUTRAL PROJECT PSI September 2021
STEP | MAX POSSIBLE | 02-Sep-21 | WHY? | |
SCORE | SCORE | |||
1 | Goal | 20 | 20 | In 2019 the UK Government amended the Climate Change Act to commit the UK to achieving net zero by 2050 |
2 | Jobs | 20 | 0 | The statutory Climate Change Committee has said that the UK is currently on track to meet its target of a 37% reduction in emissions compared to 1990 by 2022, but it is not on track to meet its targets outlined by the fourth and fifth carbon budgets—a 51% reduction compared to 1990 levels by 2025 and a 57% reduction compared to 1990 levels by 2030. The committee said that the Government will have to “introduce more challenging measures” if the UK is to meet future carbon budgets and the net zero target for 2050. In a report from September 2020, the Institute for Government said that there was “little evidence that the Government, and the politicians who waved the new target [of net zero by 2050] through with little debate, have confronted the enormous scale of the task ahead”. It set out several requirements the Government would need to introduce to meet its net zero target. The first of these was: A coherent plan based on a thorough appraisal of practical options, which sets out how, sector by sector, the UK will achieve emissions reductions, and which gives businesses the certainty they need to invest. |
3 | Leader | 10 | 2 | There’s a leader but little if any, leadership. Call me harsh if you like. |
4 | People | 10 | 1 | The people – the team to carry out the project i.e. the population of the UK are available – but in the absence of a plan, what are we to do? Carry on recycling? Don’t eat meat on Mondays? Trade in our car for an electric one? |
5(a) | Contingency | 5 | 0 | Since there’s no plan there can’t be any contingency |
5(a) | Risk | 5 | 0 | This is the most high risk project in the history of the world. |
70 | 23 | 40/70 is the threshold for a project to have any chance of success. Based on this score, one would have to say that – as it stands – this project has no chance of success. |