The UK government risks jeopardising the country's net zero by 2050 target through a lack of long-term planning, a report from the cross-party Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) found.
The government's plans are "too often" short-term, which means it risks failing to "attract the large amounts of private investment needed" to reach the UK's legally binding net zero by 2050 goal, PAC found.
PAC examines the value for money of government projects, programmes and service delivery. Its members span five UK political parties.
The government's net zero delivery plan only covers funding from 2022-25, which "provides little comfort for investors in the medium to long-term", PAC wrote. It pointed to prime minister Rishi Sunak's decision in September to delay the rollout of some net zero technologies.
The government told PAC that it is "not right to plan everything now into the 2030s and 2040s", although it aimed to provide "strong signals" to investors over the medium term.
The UK government is providing £4.2bn ($5.2bn) in support for net zero research and innovation to 2025, across 115 funding programmes and eight departments. And the government should review its "complex funding arrangements", PAC recommended. To hit net zero goals, the UK will need decarbonisation investment overall to grow from around £23bn in 2022 to " two to three times that level per year through the late 2020s and 2030s", with most of the increase coming from the private sector, PAC wrote, citing a National Audit Office report from May.
PAC warned on the "significant practical challenges" facing consumers with regards to some new technologies. "We are not convinced that the government is paying sufficient attention [to these]", the committee wrote. It recommended that the government committed to addressing these challenges. PAC also suggested the government reported publicly on its progress in its "priority technology" areas, as well as setting "measures of success" for these.
