Starmer's climate advisers say we need to change diets and fly less

Britons will have to fly less, eat less meat and use public transport more often to hit Net Zero goals, the Government's main climate-change advisers have insisted.

The stipulations outlined to MPs today directly contradict promises by Sir Keir Starmer earlier this month that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would not involve people in Britain having to change their lifestyles.

New targets mean the UK's emissions should be cut to 81 per cent of 1990 levels by 2035.

Speaking at the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan a fortnight ago, the Prime Minister said he would not be 'telling people how to live their lives' by reducing air travel or changing their diets.

But today leading members of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled out that hitting the target would involve widespread 'behaviour change'.

Asked at the Commons environmental audit committee 'to what extent will individual behavioural change be needed', James Richardson, director of analysis at the CCC, said: 'In terms of the analysis we've done, about 10 per cent of emissions reduction to 2035 comes from what we would think of as behaviour change. That's predominantly around diets, flying and modal shifting [to] public transport.'

Detailing the 'key behavioural changes people would notice' if the UK follows the CCC's advice, Mr Richardson said: 'It's not about telling people you must stop flying, but it's the rate of growth of flights that we think would happen if we didn't take any action... When we talk to citizens, people seem willing to accept there must be some degree of constraint.'

Regarding changes in diet, Mr Richardson said: 'We think about half the change you'd need to get to by 2035 is a continuation of the existing trends of people changing what they eat.' 

He accepted people may have changed their diets – such as by eating less meat – in recent years because of the rise in the cost of living.

Mr Richardson was asked why the installation rate of energy-efficient heat pumps is nowhere near hitting the Government's target of 600,000 a year by 2028.

He said installing a pump would hit consumers in the pocket as they are more expensive to run than gas boilers, adding that 'at the moment, if you do the right thing you will lose from it'.

Piers Forster, interim chairman of the CCC, said the price of electricity was too high in the UK compared to gas, partly to subsidise wind and solar power.

He said: 'Our very top recommendation is to reduce the cost of electricity. If you reduce the cost of electricity, you make it more compelling to buy an electric car, to install an air-source heat pump rather than a gas boiler and for our industries to make the necessary investment in electrification'.

Professor Forster said there is a need for 'long-term consistent policies that are really well communicated by the industry and communicated by the Government as well'.

He added: 'You have to keep that really consistent message out there that, in the long term, your electric car will not be as expensive for you as the petrol or diesel one you are currently using.'

Mr Richardson said he supported the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate which imposes stiff fines if car-makers miss their sales targets for EVs.

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The policy has been blamed by auto giant Stellantis for it deciding to close its Vauxhall van-making plant in Luton after 120 years.

But Mr Richardson said: 'We know from previous transitions between technologies that incumbent firms can get left behind – we all remember Blockbuster Video or Kodak.

'When these new technologies come in, it can be easy for incumbents to think they have more time to change than they do.

'The ZEV mandate is actually a way of saying to industry, as much as anything, 'look, actually you have less time than you think'.'