The fifth carbon budget – The next step towards a low-carbon economy
This report presents the Committee’s advice on the fifth carbon budget, covering the period 2028-32, as required under Section 34 of the Climate Change Act 2008.
The Committee recommends that the fifth carbon budget is set at 1,765 MtCO2e, including emissions from international shipping, over the period 2028-2032. That would limit annual emissions to an average 57% below 1990 levels. This balances a range of factors the Committee must consider, keeps the UK on its cost-effective path to the 2050 legislated commitment to reduce UK emissions by 80% on 1990 levels, and continues the UK’s historical rate of emissions reduction.
To date, in line with advice from the Committee, four carbon budgets have been legislated. The Government must legislate the level of the fifth carbon budget by June 2016.
The fifth carbon budget report
- The fifth carbon budget – The next step towards a low-carbon economy
- Sectoral scenarios for the fifth carbon budget – Technical report
Individual chapters
- The fifth carbon budget – Executive summary
- Chapter 1 – Approach to setting the fifth carbon budget
- Chapter 2 – Overview of climate science and international circumstances
- Chapter 3 – The cost-effective path to 2050
- Chapter 4 – Wider economic and social circumstances
- Chapter 5 – Differences in national circumstances
- Chapter 6 – Budget recommendation
- The fifth carbon budget – Exhibits
Supporting research
- CfSRF (2015): An assessment of the potential for demand-side fuel savings in the Heavy Goods Vehicle sector
- Ricardo Energy and Environment (2015): Light duty vehicle cost and efficiency scenarios (peer reviewed)
- Imperial (2015): Value of flexibility in a decarbonised grid and system externalities of low-carbon generation technologies
- Nera (2015): System integration costs for alternative low carbon generation technologies – policy implications
- E4tech (2015): Scenarios for deployment of hydrogen in contributing to meeting carbon budgets
- Element Energy (2015): Research on district heating and local approaches to heat decarbonisation
- Frontier Economics (2015): Research on district heating and local approaches to decarbonisation – Annex 1: Overcoming barriers to district heating
- Cambridge Econometrics (2015): Quantifying uncertainty in Baseline Emissions Projections
- UKERC (2015): A review of the evidence on the time taken for new technologies to reach widespread commercialisation
- Scotland’s Rural Collage (SRUC), Ricardo Energy and Environment (2015): Review and update of the UK agriculture MACC to assess abatement potential for the fifth carbon budget period and to 2050
