The budget called for the “near elimination” of waste to landfill by 2040 and the end of biogenic waste, including food waste and green waste, to landfill by 2028.
The CCC modelled that the UK must reduce emissions by 87% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2040.
To achieve this, the committee proposed that all new Energy from Waste (EfW) plants should only be granted planning permission if “a viable route to connecting to CCS can be established”.
Suez recycling and recovery UK
Suez recycling and recovery UK CEO John Scanlon has asked that more prominence be given to re-use and repair.
He said: “This seventh carbon budget offers clear and unambiguous guidelines in areas such as acceleration of electrification and industrial decarbonisation and that clarity is crucial in developing policy and helping all sectors align with those Net Zero targets. However, I think a greater focus in this budget on reuse and repair would confirm its importance and ensure a place in future policy making.
“Embedding reuse and repair clearly into the budget’s framework, with real targets and incentives, will drive the circular economy necessary to reaching Net Zero goals.
“The UK has largely made the transition away from landfill and we will ensure that Carbon capture and storage (CCS) reduces the impact of dealing with our customers’ residual waste. But we need to improve resource efficiency and that is not possible without a clear re-use and repair ethos.
“As a society we can’t reduce carbon emissions if we continue with the linear economy habit of transforming valuable resources into waste and recycling. We have to aim higher up the waste hierarchy than that and look to re-use and repair. Statutory support for this approach would be a huge step forward.”
Liquid Gas UK
George Webb, CEO of Liquid Gas UK, the trade association for the LPG and renewable liquid gases industry, said: “The Seventh Carbon Budget indicates homeowners could save on energy bills and cut emissions by investing in heat pumps for their home heating.
“Yet research shows 20% of off-grid homes are not suitable for a heat pump1 and 70% of rural homeowners say they are unaffordable.
“This is because many off-grid homes are complex to decarbonise, typically being energy inefficient. In these circumstances, heat pumps can cost up to £32,000 when energy efficiency measures are considered.
“As a result, this heat pump only approach and a ‘blanket’ boiler ban will leave off-grid, typically rural property owners out in the cold and out of pocket, placing unnecessary financial strain on the two million off-grid homes that currently rely on traditional heating fuels, such as LPG.
“Yet, the urgent need to decarbonise heat in the UK cannot be delayed.
“Households and businesses require affordable alternatives to electric technologies such as heat pumps, and low carbon alternatives to fossil derived gases, with a solution already present through renewable liquid gases.
“This drop-in, low-carbon fuel is produced from renewable or recycled feedstocks – even municipal solid waste – and can be used seamlessly with existing LPG infrastructure, at a fraction of the cost of installing a heat pump.
“Most importantly, renewable liquid gases can deliver up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared to traditional fuels and could save some households up to £2,000 annually compared to the operating cost of a heat pump.
“With the right policy support, displacing fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal with renewable liquid gases could result in removing the equivalent carbon emissions of 1.3 million cars by 2050.
“As an industry committed to being 100% renewable by 2040, we can support both off-grid and on-grid households, through the transition to net zero.
“A cautious and flexible approach to decarbonising heat is essential and only a mixed-technology strategy can deliver this.”
The Environmental Services Association (ESA)
Head of climate and energy policy at the ESA, Charlotte Rule, said: “Despite recent political headwinds globally, the urgent need to decarbonise our economy and address climate change has not diminished. By the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) own calculation today, the recycling and waste sector is the eighth largest carbon emitter in the United Kingdom and we account for around 6% of all UK emissions. We therefore remain committed to our sectoral strategy of achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.
“We agree with the CCCs recommendations and, as a membership body, are actively pursuing the outcomes it concludes are needed, in today’s Seventh Carbon Budget, for the recycling and waste sector to play its important role in meeting the UK’s net-zero targets.
“Achieving sectoral net-zero, as the CCC recognises, will require a step-change in recycling performance to drive down waste volumes and remove plastics from the residual waste stream. This, in part, will be achieved by implementing the long-awaited Collection and Packaging Reforms, as well as new efforts to stimulate a more circular economy across a range of sectors – currently being developed by the government’s Circular Economy Task Force. Without dramatic improvements to recycling performance and residual waste reduction, any other measures we take to reduce emissions associated with waste will be fighting an uphill battle.
“Alongside recycling, achieving net-zero will necessitate measures to decarbonise treatment of the remaining residual waste, which is why our sector’s inclusion in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS); alongside support for carbon capture and the cessation of sending biodegradable waste to landfill, all remain essential tools to shape this outcome. However, the emerging policy landscape is some way off creating investable conditions in residual waste decarbonisation and government must ensure that the ETS drives the correct behaviour through pragmatic mechanisms that ensure the carbon content of waste is fairly allocated to producers to deliver a clear signal to decarbonise.”
Hubbub
Alex Robinson, chief executive of environmental charity Hubbub, commented: “Net zero won’t happen without everyone on board. The good news is people are ready to act, but need clear guidance, fair costs, and to know their efforts matter. The Climate Change Committee have listened, and, by foregrounding the roles of citizens in their advice, have sent a timely reminder to those in power that net zero isn’t something that’s done to us, but something we can all achieve together.”
Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA)
Julia Turner, executive director of the WRA, said: “The WRA welcomes any effort to divert biodegradable waste from landfill and to protect valuable resources including waste wood.
“Fortunately, only a very tiny amount of waste wood ends up in landfill with over 97% sent to value-added end markets in 2023, showing that we are already a UK success story in this area.
“However, one barrier to ensuring the best environmental outcome for this material is storage restrictions. At present, when material is abundant – due to seasonal trends or outages – operators export valuable material which could be used in the UK due to stringent storage conditions set out in operators’ Fire Prevention Plans (FPP).
“Our industry was the first to produce sector-specific FPP guidance which has been very successful, and now we have started to engage with the regulators to see whether we can expand FPPs, given what we have learnt and the progress we have made.
“This would allow us to maximise the use of our own domestic waste wood resource, while supporting net zero and helping to keep our resources in use for longer.”
The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE)
Caroline Bragg, CEO of the ADE said; “The CCC has laid out an ambitious vision for decarbonisation through electrification and other technologies, but the real transformation begins with government action. Government must now set clear, modern rules that ensure we don’t waste the renewable energy we’re building or the heat our industries produce. This is how we lower bills, protect jobs, and fuel economic growth.”
Evero Energy
Elliot Renton, CFO at Evero Energy, said: “While we welcome the CCC’s recommendation to finalise business models for engineered removals, including the need for clear guidance on near-term funding pathways and the division of responsibilities between the public and private sectors, we were surprised to see that the CCC has recommended reducing greenhouse gas removal (GGRs) from 58 Mtpa in Carbon Budget 6 to 36 Mtpa by 2050 in Carbon Budget 7.
Forecasts indicate that the international market for carbon removals could be worth $1.2 trillion by 2050 and with the UK’s abundant geological storage and well-developed plans for clean power by 2030, the country is well positioned to become a global hub for the carbon removals sector. Rather than pulling back, we urge the government to set ambitious GGR targets that unlock this potential and drive export-led economic growth and investment in real infrastructure.
There is already an advancing market for GGRs, with committed commercial buyers lined up, here in the UK. By supporting the GGR sector during the Comprehensive Spending Review, we can start tapping into the country’s full potential.”
The Renewable Energy Association (REA)
Trevor Hutchings, CEO of the Renewable Energy Association (REA), commented: “We welcome the momentum today’s advice from the CCC provides, as it clarifies the route forward for the UK’s decarbonisation path, emphasising this is achievable and affordable for the country.
“The recognition that renewable and clean technologies are vital to decarbonising the UK’s economy in a cost-effective way is an important message from today’s publication. So now is the time to work at speed towards net zero and to secure the jobs, investment, environmental and energy security benefits which will flow from this.
“While we need to better understand the CCC’s treatment of some renewable technologies, we look forward to engaging with them and with the government on the implementation of the Carbon Budget recommendations.”
Enfinium
Mike Maudsley, CEO of enfinium, added: “Today’s report from the CCC makes it clear that the clock is ticking to scale up engineered carbon removals using CCS technology. Without them, we won’t reach net zero. CCS is essential for decarbonising industrial sectors where there are ‘limited alternatives’ to cut emissions. But without urgent investment in CCS, we risk failing to deliver one of the few solutions that can remove carbon from the atmosphere at scale.
“The committee’s analysis shows that waste to energy with CCS, or WECCS, could use homegrown unrecyclable waste to deliver over a fifth of the 35 million tonnes of engineered carbon removals needed in the Committee’s central scenario to achieve Net Zero.
“Waste sector emissions have already fallen by around two-thirds since 1990 as unrecyclable waste has been diverted from climate-damaging landfill to the UK’s modern fleet of energy from waste facilities. But, even if we reach our ambitious recycling targets, over 17 million tonnes of unrecyclable waste will remain in the 2040s.
“The CCC is right to call for the elimination of all appropriate waste to landfill—methane emissions from landfill are the largest source of waste-related greenhouse gases and addressing them is an urgent priority. The responsible path forward is to eliminate landfill and ensure every EfW facility captures its emissions using CCS.”
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