Dr Ruth Valerio, Global Advocacy and Influencing Director at Tearfund said: “This guidance comes at a crucial time when the UK public is making it clear that we want increased and urgent action on climate change.
“Over recent months we’ve seen a seminal TV documentary, protests, school strikes and declarations of a climate emergency by local and regional authorities. Today’s recommendation, if adopted, would be a key opportunity in turning that sense of urgency into action and be a litmus test for how serious the Government is to tackle climate change.
“We welcome these proposals from the Committee on Climate Change and we urge the Government to accept them, and indeed to go further and commit to the UK achieving net zero by 2045 at the very latest.
“We believe this is possible, as the guidance acknowledges, and with faster technology innovation and reducing costs we will see a cleaner future. This will bring us into line with delivering the UK's commitments under the Paris Agreement.
“Climate change is already affecting all of us, but as we've seen from the unprecedented occurrence of two cyclones in five weeks hitting the coast of eastern Africa - people in poverty are hit the hardest.”
