Final report

Climate Assembly UK’s report, The Path to Net Zero, shows how a representative sample of the population believe the UK should meet its net zero emissions commitment with detailed recommendations across ten areas including: how we travel; what we eat and how we use the land; what we buy; heat and energy use in the home; how we generate our electricity; and greenhouse gas removals.

Read the report

Each chapter of the report details assembly members’ views on the advantages and disadvantages - including the trade-offs and co-benefits - of different ways of reaching net zero, and the results of the votes by secret ballot that followed.

The report also conveys Assembly members’ agreement on themes that recurred throughout their discussions, on the need for:

• improved information and education for all on climate change; 
• fairness, including across sectors, geographies, incomes and health;
• freedom and choice for individuals and local areas;
• and strong leadership from government.

It also stresses the assembly’s support for protecting and restoring nature, and the value of ‘co-benefits’ to tackling climate change, such as improved health, advantages for local communities, high streets and the economy, including by the promotion of innovation in technology. It calls on policy makers to make use of the report as an “invaluable resource” for decision making.

Supporting parliamentary democracy

The work of Climate Assembly UK is designed to strengthen and support the UK’s parliamentary democracy by ensuring politicians and policy makers have the best possible evidence available to them about public preferences on reaching the net zero target. Parliament will use the report to support its work on scrutinising the Government’s climate change policy and progress on the target.

The report was launched at a virtual launch event on 10 September 2020, which involved Assembly Members, the Chairs of the commissioning committees, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and members of the Climate Assembly UK project team.

The Secretary of State, Alok Sharma MP, commented:

“This Assembly represents the very best of civil society. It’s people from across the whole country who have come together, giving up their time to shape the future on climate action. […]

I do believe that the climate assembly has shown us the benefits of working with a dedicated group. One that’s been given time and information to consider complex issues in full. […]

And this report will help to shape the work that we in government are doing over the next critical 14 months. […] and in the run up to cop26, we will publish our own NDC [nationally determined contribution]. And the assembly’s report will help to inform our plans.

I have asked my officials to look at its recommendations in detail and we’ve also invited the assembly’s expert leads to [give] … seven briefings to government officials over the next few weeks. [….] Because i do think that the kind of cooperation that we’ve had here is absolutely crucial. It is only by working together that we will help and reach net zero.”