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The UK's plans and progress to reach net zero by 2050

The UK is committed to reaching net zero by 2050. This means that the total greenhouse gas emissions would be equal to the emissions removed from the atmosphere, with the aim of limiting global warming and resultant climate change.

The UK Government has adopted a suite of policies in order to reach net zero. These include meeting interim targets, known as carbon budgets.

Its most recent strategy document, published under the Labour government, is the 2025 Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, which sets out policies to meet the carbon budgets and the net zero target.  

This briefing provides an overview of the background context for net zero, headline policies since 2020, and current progress towards this goal. It gives a breakdown of current net zero policy by some of the key sectors, including stakeholder commentary on this progress.

Initial policy and the Net Zero Strategy

The 2021 Net Zero Strategy set out a series of policies and commitments designed to enable the UK to reach net zero by 2050. In July 2022, a High Court judgment found that the strategy was unlawful under the Climate Change Act 2008 and ruled that the government should set out more detail on how it aims to meet its carbon budgets and reach net zero.

In response to the judgment, the government updated the policies and commitments made in the strategy with the March 2023 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan. The delivery plan set out how the government would meet the emissions reductions required for carbon budgets four to six (spanning 2023 to 2037), equivalent to emissions reductions of 52% from a 1990 baseline.

Policy developments in 2024

A second legal challenge at the High Court in May 2024 found that the revised strategy (the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan) was unlawful in its assertion that the plans put forward would enable the UK to meet its carbon budgets. It ruled that government needed to prepare a revised plan by 2 May 2025. Following the announcement of the general election, this deadline was extended to October 2025.

The Labour government announced its plan to deliver Clean Power by 2030 in December 2024. This was supported by several policies and new pieces of legislation, notably the Great British Energy Act (to set up a publicly owned clean power company to accelerate investment in renewable energy).

Policy developments in 2025

In 2025, further funding for measures to decarbonise the economy and meet net zero was announced in the Spending Review.  

The government published its revised plan for meeting the UK’s net zero target, the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, on 29 October 2025. This plan sets out how the government would meet the emissions reductions for carbon budgets four to six (2023 to 2037).

Assessing progress and policy developments in 2026

The government’s strategies and policies are subject to scrutiny from parliamentary committees, independent third-party reviews, and wider media attention. Each year, the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) assesses policies that contribute to the net zero by 2050 target and submits its assessment to Parliament.

This set out the committee’s assessment of progress towards net zero targets, including the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to reduce global emissions under its international obligations at least 68% by 2030 and its statutory carbon budgets.

Climate Change Committee assessments

In 2024, the CCC said that the new government would “have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments”. The CCC’s 2025 progress report recognised the government’s ambitions and assessed that the net zero target was “within reach, provided the government stays the course”. The government response to the CCC’s progress report was published alongside the 2025 Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan and set out actions to address the key challenges identified. The CCC welcomed the plan as comprehensive and it would assess this fully in its 2026 progress report.

The CCC published its most recent progress report to Parliament in June 2026. It focused on the government’s delivery plan. The CCC said that the government “is not moving fast enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect households and businesses from volatile fossil fuel prices”, and it said the government should adopt a “more ambitious plan to electrify” the country, noting that slow progress in electrification could make it more likely the UK will miss its emissions reductions targets.

It concluded that UK could still hit its emissions reductions targets and remain on track for net zero by 2050, but it said that there were significant risks that could derail progress without urgent policy action. It assessed that the plans set out by government were broadly more credible in the short term, but that risks remained across all sectors, especially for delivering emissions reductions across the sixth carbon budget (CB6).  

The government has not yet responded to the CCC’s progress report, but has said that it will publish a new delivery plan setting out plans to achieve the reductions required for the seventh carbon budget.

Seventh carbon budget

In 2026, the level of the seventh carbon budget (CB7) was also set. CB7 set the government’s target for emissions reductions up to 2042: eight years before 2050, the year that the UK has committed to reaching net zero. The CCC published advice to the government on CB7 in February 2025, and the government laid legislation before Parliament in June 2026.

Following parliamentary scrutiny, CB7 was agreed in both Houses, committing the UK to emissions reductions of 87% from 1990 levels by 2042. The government has said that it will publish a delivery plan setting out how it will meet the emissions reductions required to meet this carbon budget.