![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/f15f\/live\/dee21aa0-9363-11ef-9d60-ffb075b6e630.jpg.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nThe UK needs to make huge cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions this decade to help the world avoid the worst impacts of rising temperatures, the government’s climate watchdog has said.<\/p>\n
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says the UK has the technologies to do this, but meeting the goal would require much greater investment in renewable energy, electric cars and heat pumps.<\/p>\n
While the UK has already cut its emissions by more than 50% since 1990, the CCC says it should extend this to 81% by 2035, which would make a “credible contribution” to the international goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said the government would carefully consider the CCC\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If the government commits to the suggested target, it would represent a significant advance on the UK\u2019s current international pledge to cut emissions by 68% by 2030.<\/p>\n
It is, however, broadly in line with the UK\u2019s legally-binding carbon-cutting path towards net zero emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
These figures do not include emissions from products manufactured abroad and imported, nor those from international flights and shipping, in line with UN standards.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s relative success so far has been largely down to cleaning up electricity, with progress in other areas, such as home heating, proving more difficult. <\/p>\n
But the CCC is confident that the UK\u2019s targets are still possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the core technologies have got cheaper, and they keep getting cheaper, and that’s what gives us more and more confidence that we’ll be able to achieve this very ambitious level of emissions reductions,\u201d Nigel Topping, member of the CCC, told BBC News Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n