17 Accepted

The Government should ensure that delivery of the Seventh Carbon Budget is grounded primarily in...

Recommendation
The Government should ensure that delivery of the Seventh Carbon Budget is grounded primarily in early, high-confidence emissions reductions where possible. Greenhouse gas removals should be treated as conditional and supplementary, not as substitutes for mitigation. (Recommendation, Paragraph 93)
Government Response Summary
The government agrees on the importance of resilience and states its plans already prioritise early, high-confidence emissions reductions, with Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs) used to balance residual emissions; it will consider GGR Independent Review recommendations and set out the role of GGRs in a future delivery plan.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee on the importance of building resilience into the delivery of the seventh carbon budget. As part of our ongoing monitoring process, we assess opportunities to realise greater emissions reductions from our existing plans and continue to explore alternative policies should they be needed, informed by advice – including from the CCC. Our plans already prioritise deployment of more developed technologies. This is reflected in policies such as the Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate, which provides a clear, legally binding framework to accelerate the uptake of zero-emission cars and vans using mature technologies, while giving industry certainty and reducing reliance on less certain mitigation options later in the pathway. At the same time, the government is clear that Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs) will be very important for reaching net zero – balancing residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors, for example in industries where the process itself, rather than the heat source, produces emissions. This is recognised by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the CCC. The government’s priority remains to reduce emissions across the economy, with GGRs used to balance residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors. On 23 October 2025, the GGR Independent Review was published, setting out a range of recommendations to government. The government welcomes this report and will consider the recommendations and respond in due course. The role of GGRs in delivering CB7 and net zero will be set out in due course through the publication of a delivery plan for carbon budgets 4–7 out to 2042 on the trajectory to net zero.
Timeline
Recommendation age 0.4 yrs
Report published 04 Mar 2026