The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has
today [Thursday] published the Government’s response to the BEIS
Committee’s Climate Assembly UK: where are we now? report (which
was published on 8th July 2021).
The Government’s response is published on the anniversary of
Climate Assembly UK, the first ever UK-wide
climate assembly.
(Please note: In the Government response, the attached pdf
document, the BEIS Committee’s original report recommendations
from July are included in bold type, the
Government’s response is in plain type.)
, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Committee, said: “The Climate Assembly UK has done the
Prime Minister’s homework for him by agreeing the best ways to
achieve our net zero target through incremental changes to the
way we heat our homes, travel and live. The Government should
listen to the public and now seize the opportunity to bring
forward the policies to get to net zero.
“Ministers acknowledge the value of the Climate Assembly and
recognise its importance as part of their evidence-base for
policy-making on net-zero. But the Government must go further and
faster in engaging the British public and in energising and
motivating people about the net zero opportunities ahead of us.
The clock is ticking to COP26 and the Government should not waste
this chance to engage the whole country in the conversation
around climate change.
“I urge the Government to stop kicking the can down the road and
urgently come forward with the host of net-zero related
initiatives they have promised, including the Treasury’s Net Zero
Review. I hope the Government will use their Net Zero Strategy to
set out a bold and ambitious public engagement plan to build
consensus and maintain public trust in the policies needed to
transition to net zero.”
The BEIS Committee’s report in July called for the Government to
provide a point-by-point response to the recommendations of the
original Climate Assembly UK report. In the Government’s
response, published today (see paragraphs 32-37 of the pdf for
further info), the Government declines to provide a
point-by-point response and instead refers to the substance of
its original submission to the BEIS Committee’s Climate Assembly
inquiry.
Background – Climate Assembly UK: where
are we now?, Thursday 8th July
Report - Climate Assembly UK: where
are we now? HC 546 See also news item.
In its report, published in July, the BEIS Committee called for
the Government to follow the principles set out by Climate
Assembly UK and ensure fairness underpins the transition to net
zero.
The BEIS Committee’s report made a series of recommendations to
Government on public engagement and education, on deliberative
democracy, and on the net zero transition, in order to capitalise
on the work of Climate Assembly UK (CAUK).
BEIS Committee
Editor’s Notes
During the 2017-19 Parliament, six select committees (including
the BEIS Committee) jointly commissioned a citizen's assembly to
deliberate on potential pathways to achieve the Government's net
zero target - the statutory target to reduce UK greenhouse gas
emissions by 2050. Climate Assembly UK (CAUK) was designed to
harness the attitudes of an informed public, through a citizens’
assembly, to help both Parliament and the Government gauge public
opinion on a wide range of climate change policies and proposals.
, BEIS Committee Chair, welcomed Climate
Assembly UK’s final report published in
September, in the House of Commons.
On 24th June, the BEIS Committee launched an inquiry
into net zero governance,
which will examine the leadership and co-ordination which will be
needed by government to deliver on the UK’s commitment to reach
net zero by 2050.
