UK must speed up switch to electric to hit climate goals: report

The UK needs a faster transition to electric cars and heat pumps to meet its 2030 target on cutting carbon emissions, a group of independent experts advising the government said Wednesday.

Published two days after the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Climate Change Committee's  (CCC) report will be seen as a cautionary message to his successor in Downing Street.

While the UK has halved emissions since 1990, it lacks "credible plans" to achieve more than half of the remaining cuts pledged by 2030, the report said.

The UK has committed to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68 percent by 2030, compared to 1990.

But the transition to clean energy is "not happening fast enough", the chair of the CCC, Nigel Topping, said at a presentation of the report to media.

The government only has "credible plans, or those with some risk" to cover around 58 percent of emissions cuts needed to hit the 2030 target, he warned.

Topping urged the next British prime minister -- widely expected to be former Labour mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham -- to "hold the course" on the energy transition, after praising progress under Starmer.

"We know that consistency is super important for industry in making investment decisions. We know that U-turns are really damaging to inward investment confidence," Topping said.

Greenpeace UK praised the report with head of politics Ami McCarthy saying "it could not be better timed" and "Starmer's successor must face up to the hard choices this crisis demands".

The top priority, according to the CCC, is to increase the use of electricity by the public to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and eventually lower bills.

The report said government support is "critical" to boost sales of electric vehicles -- currently nearly one in four new car sales -- and installation of heat pumps in homes, the report said.

Fewer than 2 percent of UK homes are heated with a heat pump, among the lowest in Europe.

The report recommended expanding affordable charging equipment for cars and helping low-income households install heat pumps, as well as speeding up modernisation of the power grid to help industry switch to electricity.

It also urged the government to remove levies currently added to electricity bills to fund energy efficiency schemes.

The government has pledged that by 2030, 80 percent of new cars sold will be purely electric vehicles, while the rest will be hybrid, with no more new petrol and diesel cars sold.

But British media reported Starmer could change the target to allow more sales of hybrid vehicles, due to concerns from car makers.

The Labour government has also faced calls from the Conservative opposition and US President Donald Trump to authorise new offshore oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.