In the summer of 2019, the United Kingdom committed to reach net zero by 2050, legally pledging to reduce emissions by 100% compared to 1990 levels. Almost seven years on, how much progress have we really made? The picture was already mixed, but this week it became harder to defend, as the UK confirmed that it is halving its contribution to the UN’s Green Climate Fund by a cut of more than £800 million, leaving it, alongside the US, as the only countries to have rescinded or cancelled a pledge to the world’s largest dedicated climate fund.
Net zero delivery largely depends on two things in parallel: the policy commitments a government makes, and the funding, infrastructure, and regulatory mechanisms that turn those commitments into reality. This article looks at both. It covers the pledges that have shaped UK climate policy since 2024 and the decisions, like the choice to cut climate funding mentioned above, that have determined whether those pledges can actually be delivered.
Domestic climate ambition has held remarkably steady across UK governments since 2019. Net zero by 2050 was legislated under a Conservative government, the 2030 phase-out of internal combustion engine cars was twice committed to and once delayed, and the current Labour government has restored or strengthened most headline pledges. But the financial and infrastructure mechanisms required to deliver that ambition have been moving in the opposite direction. Overseas aid has been cut from 0.7% to 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income between 2020 and 2027-28. Major delivery vehicles like the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme have been defunded. Large-scale renewable infrastructure has been rejected. International climate finance commitments have been halved or withdrawn. This article examines that gap.
Direct Pledges – Environment
Full Fact is a UK-based independent fact-checking charity, whose Government Tracker tool monitors 92 key pledges drawn from the 2024 election manifesto and subsequent announcements, rating each as achieved, appears on track, in progress, appears off track, not kept, unclear or disputed, or wait and see. Several environmental policies have been rated, such as;
| Area | Pledge | Full Fact Verdict |
| Electric vehicles | ‘Labour will support the transition to electric vehicles … restoring the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines’ | Wait and see |
| Water pollution | ‘This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade’ | Wait and see |
| Environmental prosecution | ‘We will give regulators new powers to … bring criminal charges against persistent law breakers [water companies]’ | Achieved |
Full Fact, (2026, April 28), Government Tracker, Retrieved from Full Fact: https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/
Although two years into their term, we are still waiting to see if Labour’s efforts to support the uptake of electric cars will result in a complete phase out of new combustion engine cars by 2030, the infrastructure to support this like electric charging points does seem to be becoming a more frequent sight on our roads. Similarly, whilst data for the year 2025-26 has not yet been released, the achievement of handing prosecution power to regulators to bring criminal charges to companies who hinder such investigations will hopefully aid in the reduction of water companies’ pollution into natural bodies of water by 2030.
None of these pledges have been classed as ‘appears off track’, ‘not kept’ or ‘unclear or disputed’ which shows a clear commitment to improving the environmental situation in the UK. The consistency is promising, but these commitments only hold weight if delivery follows.
Direct Pledges – Energy
Energy policy, however, tells a more encouraging story. These policies seem to be progressing more rapidly than other governmental areas, for example;
| Area | Pledge | Full Fact Verdict |
| Independence | ‘A new Energy Independence Act will establish the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies’ | Wait and see |
| Oil and Gas | ‘We will not issue new licences to explore new [oil and gas] fields’ | Appears on track |
| Coal | ‘We will not grant new coal licences’ | Appears on track |
Full Fact, (2026, April 28), Government Tracker, Retrieved from Full Fact: https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/
The creation of the new publicly owned company, Great British Energy has been achieved, providing an early and tangible signal of the government’s intent. The refusal to license new oil, gas, or coal exploration marks a meaningful break from previous energy policy. Both are rated as appearing on track, suggesting the government is actively resisting pressure to reopen fossil fuel development. This is a position that has the potential to become harder to maintain as energy prices fluctuate and supply security debates resurface.
The Energy Independence Act remains a wait-and-see, which is unsurprising given its role as an overarching legislative framework rather than a single deliverable. Its progress will likely determine how cohesively the remaining pledges are delivered.
As with the environmental commitments, none of these energy pledges have been rated as ‘off track’, ‘not kept’, or ‘unclear or disputed’ which is a consistency that, two years into the term, points to a government that is holding its stated course on clean energy transition. Whether this holds up when the government is faced with harder trade-offs remains unknown.
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Behind the headline energy pledges, the mechanics of actually connecting renewable energy to the grid have been difficult. Until 2025 the connection system operated on a first-come, first-served basis, and by early 2025 the connection queue had reached over 700 GW of generation and storage projects, roughly four times what the country actually needs. Speculative applications were holding firm connection dates that genuine projects could not access, and the previous model was no longer fit for the scale of the energy transition.
So, in June 2025, the Connections Reform led by NESO, the National Energy System Operator, went live. It replaced the queue-based model with a readiness-based system, assessing roughly 3,000 projects and identifying 283 GW to move forward, of which 132 GW are targeted for connection by 2030 in support of the government’s Clean Power target. Because of an oversupply of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in the queue, only those with ‘protected’ status received firm connection offers. Around 153 GW of BESS projects were not prioritised, with no realistic pathway to grid connection before 2035. Solar Energy UK, the trade body for the sector, described the outcome as “painful but necessary”.
The process also ran into serious execution problems. NESO missed multiple self-imposed deadlines for issuing connection offers, with the operator itself acknowledging “considerable uncertainty” throughout, and conceding that delays were creating uncertainty around resourcing and investment. Gate 2 Phase 1 transmission offers for projects connecting before 2030 are now not expected until mid-2026 at the earliest. This means that developers who had invested years and significant capital into projects expecting a 2028 or 2029 connection have been hit hard. The reforms are a necessary response to the broken system, but the execution has added a further layer of uncertainty to an already strained supply chain.
Xlinks Cancellation
Also in June 2025, the UK government rejected the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project. The project had been designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project by the previous government in 2023 and had progressed through development for over six years.
The project proposed building 11.5 GW of solar and wind generation in Morocco’s Guelmim-Oued Noun region, paired with 22.5 GWh of battery storage, and transmitting the power to Britain via a 4,000 km HVDC subsea cable. The numbers were striking: 8% of UK electricity supply, a projected 10% reduction in power sector CO₂ emissions in its first year, a 9.3% reduction in wholesale electricity prices, £20 billion in socio-economic value, and £5 billion directly into UK green industries.
At the time, Xlinks had secured backing from TotalEnergies, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, and Octopus Energy, with £5 billion of equity finance lined up and no government investment required. The company was seeking a Contract for Difference, a standard government mechanism guaranteeing a price for the electricity generated, at approximately half the cost of new nuclear energy but the government declined.
The consequences extended beyond the project itself. XLCC, a Scottish company that had planned to manufacture the four giant cables at a new factory at the Port of Hunterston in North Ayrshire, saw its business collapse alongside the decision. Xlinks has since established a German subsidiary, Xlinks Germany GmbH, which is developing a separate Morocco-to-Germany project called Sila Atlantik, backed by E.ON and Uniper and now formally supported by the German federal government.
Public Sector Policies
Beyond direct government pledges, institutional commitments across the public sector are reshaping how organisations operate and what they demand from their suppliers. Several institutions have imposed mandatory net zero targets or are requiring a demonstrable commitment to sustainability:
- NHS England – commits to net zero direct carbon emissions by 2040, and net zero indirect emissions like those from the supply chain or patient and staff travel by 2045.
- Local Authorities – many pledge to reach net zero before the national target with a significant number committing to dates as early as 2030, by delivering on the ground impactful projects to mitigate climate change.
- Educational Institutions – fall into the same national net zero by 2050 target, with new school buildings designed to a zero carbon standard since 2022.
Over the past five years, the NHS and local authorities in England have made measurable progress on estate decarbonisation, tightened supplier requirements through Carbon Reduction Plans and Environmental Product Declarations, and implemented local green plans. A significant proportion of the capital behind this progress, particularly for heat pump installation, fabric upgrades, and solar deployment across hospitals, schools, and council buildings, came through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme administered by Salix Finance.
From 2025, educational settings in the UK are required to have a Sustainability Lead and a Climate Action Plan, CAP, in place. These CAPs ensure that each individual school can progress towards sustainability targets in a bespoke and manageable way. This means that improvements so far have largely been focused on reducing operational carbon of current school buildings, and there are efforts to only continue this progress and work towards reducing embodied carbon emissions in new build schools.
Cancellation of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
Much of the aforementioned decarbonisation momentum was funded, in part, by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). This is a programme administered by Salix Finance on behalf of the government since 2020, and has awarded over £3.5 billion in grants across nearly 1,400 projects for measures including heat pumps, solar panels, insulation, and glazing upgrades in schools, hospitals, and council buildings.
Following the 2025 Spending Review, the government confirmed it would commit no further investment to the PSDS beyond already-awarded projects. Existing phases (Phase 3c and Phase 4) are due to continue to completion in March 2026 and March 2028 respectively, but there will be no Phase 5 and likewise, no replacement has been announced.
The practical consequences of this are significant. Many local authorities had set 2030 net zero targets for their estates which may become increasingly hard to reach without continued PSDS investment. Similarly, decarbonising complex buildings such as schools, swimming pools, and hospitals takes years of planning, procurement, and delivery. This abrupt end to the funding pipeline disrupts the planning horizon at precisely the point when the market has scaled up to meet it. Contractors, heat pump installers, and sustainability consultancies that built capacity around PSDS delivery now face the loss of their core customer base. The Low Carbon Skills Fund, which helped public sector organisations develop heat decarbonisation plans in the first place, was also cancelled for 2025/26, removing even the advisory layer of the programme. The result is a public sector net zero programme that has, in effect, been defunded mid-journey, with many small scale consultancies and contractors caught in the crossfire.
International Standing
On the global table, the UK’s policy decisions have weakened its position internationally. At COP30 in Belém in November 2025, Brazil launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a results-based finance mechanism designed to make standing forests more valuable than cleared ones. The initiative originated in the UK and was shaped in part by the British government and British financial institutions. But when Keir Starmer arrived in Belém, he came with no pledge to invest. Norway committed $3 billion, Germany €1 billion, France €500 million, Brazil and Indonesia $1 billion each. The UK, which hosted COP26 in Glasgow and championed international forest protection, contributed nothing, citing domestic fiscal pressure as the reason. The situation was worsened diplomatically by Prince William having been in Rio de Janeiro the day before, naming the TFFF an Earthshot Prize finalist. At the time, our director, Tom Bradley, was at industry events for COP30 in São Paulo, and the mixed messaging and effective insult to Brazil during COP30 were mentioned by other delegates. The instrument the UK had helped design proceeded without British funding.
That pattern has continued into 2026. This week, the UK notified the Green Climate Fund, GCF, that it is cutting its pledge for the fund’s second replenishment cycle by approximately 50%, reducing it to only £815 million. The move follows Donald Trump’s administration rescinding the US’s $4 billion pledge a year prior, and the UK and US are now the only countries to have cancelled a commitment to the fund. The GCF’s chief executive confirmed the cut is expected to have a material impact on project delivery. The government cited its decision to reduce overseas aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income and prioritise domestic security spending. Other major economies including Germany and France have also trimmed climate finance budgets, but neither has rescinded a GCF pledge.
The Expert Verdict
The Climate Change Committee, the independent body which reports to Parliament on emissions reduction progress, advised in 2019 that Scotland could reach net zero by 2045 and Wales could achieve a 95% reduction by 2050. Both nations went on to legislate this. Scotland’s 2045 target is now law under the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, and Wales went further than the original Committee advice, legislating full net zero by 2050 in 2021. However, in April 2024 the Scottish Government scrapped its 2030 interim emissions reduction target after admitting it was no longer achievable.
The Committee also states that “it is achievable with known technologies, alongside improvements in people’s lives, and within the expected economic cost that Parliament accepted”. This indicates that the solutions exist and the costs are understood, but the Committee is equally direct about what is missing, warning that this outcome “is only possible if clear, stable and well-designed policies to reduce emissions further are introduced across the economy without delay” and that “current policy is insufficient for even the existing targets.”
Climate Action Tracker reinforces this, rating the UK’s overall policies and action as ‘insufficient’. The gap between what is technically possible and what policy currently supports is not a minor shortfall. Cancelling the PSDS, rejecting Xlinks, and attending COP30 without financial commitments are examples of the kind of policy choices that are inconsistent with the legislated trajectory.
Are We on Track?
The overall picture is one of genuine but uneven progress. This article covers only part of the landscape, but the decisions discussed are representative of where the UK stands.
Real progress has been made towards a net zero UK by 2050. Great British Energy has been established, new fossil fuel licences have been refused, supply chain requirements have been tightened through Carbon Reduction Plans and Environmental Product Declarations, and schools are now legally required to have Climate Action Plans in place. The decisions described in this article sit alongside those achievements. The PSDS has been defunded, removing the primary capital mechanism for public sector decarbonisation. The Xlinks rejection ended a proposal for privately financed generation that would have supplied 8% of UK electricity. The grid reform was structurally necessary, but its execution caused investment delays and removed significant volumes of consented capacity from the connection pipeline. At COP30, the UK helped design the Tropical Forests Forever Facility but did not commit financial backing at launch. And this week, the UK halved its contribution to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, the primary financial vehicle for the Paris Agreement’s implementation in 134 developing countries.
These decisions are not isolated. The retreat from delivery mechanisms has been running since around 2020 and has continued across two governments. The UK has maintained net zero ambition in legislation while withdrawing the means of delivery for six years across both parties, and 2025-2026 is the most acute phase of that pattern. Domestic ambition has held in law. The funding, infrastructure, and international finance required to deliver that ambition have not.
Progress remains uneven, and the Climate Change Committee is clear that current policy is insufficient to meet existing targets. Closing the gap between ambition and delivery will be the central challenge of the next 24 years.
At Below280, we help organisations move from commitment to measurable action. Whether that means conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to understand where emissions occur across a product full lifespan, producing an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) to meet supply chain requirements like those now demanded by the NHS and local authorities, carrying out a Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) to quantify embodied and operational carbon in the built environment, or navigating the UK’s incoming Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
Frequently Asked Questions
Progress has been made but the Climate Change Committee warns that current policy is insufficient to meet existing targets. Significant steps like the creation of Great British Energy and the refusal of new fossil fuel licences are positive, but delivery across all sectors needs to accelerate.
Great British Energy is a new publicly owned energy company established by the Labour government as part of its clean energy transition. It represents one of the more tangible early signals of the government’s commitment to moving away from fossil fuels.
Carbon Reduction Plans (CRPs) are required for UK businesses bidding on public contracts over £5 million under PPN 06/21. They set out a company’s current carbon footprint and commitment to reaching net zero by 2050.
An EPD is a verified document that communicates the environmental impact of a product across its lifecycle, based on a Life Cycle Assessment. They are increasingly required by public sector procurement, BREEAM, and supply chain requirements like those from the NHS.
The Committee states that net zero is achievable with known technologies and within expected economic costs, but warns that current policy is insufficient and that clear, stable policies must be introduced across the economy without delay.
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Global commercial consultancy • Horizon Europe, UKRI & Innovate UK research partner. Specialists in openLCA, and UK openLCA partner for GreenDelta.
Sources
House of Commons Library – Net Zero
Institute for Government – Net Zero
Full Fact – Government Tracker
Local Government Association – Local Net Zero
Forbes Solicitors – Net Zero Education Review
UK Government – CBAM Policy Summary
Climate Change Committee – Net Zero
Written by Helen Brown
