Half of homes need heat pump by 2040, government told

Four in five cars should be electric and half of homes should have heat pumps within 15 years, say the government's independent climate advisers.

By law the UK must reach "net zero" - no longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - by 2050.

UK greenhouse gas emissions have more than halved since 1990, largely thanks to less electricity coming from fossil fuels and more from renewables. But the Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that to reach the 2050 target we will also need to change how we drive and heat our homes.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the government would consider the advice and respond in due course.

"We owe it to current generations to seize the opportunities for energy security and lower bills, and we owe it to future generations to tackle the existential climate crisis," he said.

Under UK law, the CCC provides independent advice on how much the UK should emit over five-year periods, known as "carbon budgets", and how it might get there.

Each carbon budget is a stepping stone to net zero by 2050. The latest advice is that by 2040, emissions should be 13% of their 1990 levels, for the UK to stay on track.

The CCC advice is not policy, but the government has historically accepted it. If it does, the target will become legally binding, but government will still decide how to achieve it.

Meeting these long-term goals will mean significant changes in the years ahead. One-third of emissions cuts between now and 2040 need to come from households making low-carbon choices, the CCC says.

This will mainly be through switching from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles and from fossil fuel boilers to heat pumps, making use of growing supplies of clean electricity. Smaller contributions will come from other choices, such as eating less meat and dairy.

As the graph below shows, these changes are ambitious. But they are deliverable, argues the CCC, without people having to scrap their existing boiler or car early.

Other emerging technologies, like mobile phones and internet connections, have achieved similar rates of increases previously.

Additional reporting by Becky Dale