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.

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 judgement 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 judgement, 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).

Policy developments in 2026

The seventh carbon budget must be set by June 2026. The CCC published advice to the government on CB7 in February 2025, and the government laid draft legislation before Parliament in June 2026. The draft legislation proposes a carbon budget equivalent to emissions reductions of 87% from 1990 levels.

The seventh carbon budget will 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 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.

Scrutiny of the government’s approach

These strategies and policies have been subject to scrutiny from parliamentary committees, independent third-party reviews, and wider media attention. The Climate Change Committee undertakes an annual assessment of policies that contribute to the net zero by 2050 target, which it submits to Parliament.

Its 2024 Progress Report set out that the new government would “have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments”. It noted progress in low carbon technologies alongside an increasing need to focus on how the UK adapts to changes already present, and sets out ten priority actions for the next year.

The CCC’s 2025 Progress Report recognised the new government’s ambitions and assessed that the net zero target is “within reach, provided the government stays the course”. The CCC noted that while historic progress has been driven by decarbonisation of the electricity system, more recent progress could be attributed to the surface transport sector, alongside the increased roll out of measures such as heat pumps, and policies such as tree planting and peatland restoration. However, it also noted that limited action had been taken to remove policy costs from electricity and reiterated that making electricity cheaper remained its main recommendation.

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 Chair’s initial response welcomed the plan as comprehensive and said that the CCC will assess the plan fully in its 2026 progress report.

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.