Climate Gap Report 2024

We know we’re not on track to meet international emissions reduction targets.  So what is the gap between where we are and where we need to be?  And what action must be taken to address it?

The Climate Gap Report 2024 – Closing the Climate Gap Third Edition has just been released by Ethical Consumer.  It’s their annual report on progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK.

The Climate Gap Report analyses emission data around four key impact areas:

• • • Food
    • Heating
    • Transport
    • Consumer Goods

It then reports on what it finds while providing a simplified list of key actions for consumers, companies and governments to follow to help further reduce emissions in each of the key areas.

We’re proud to sponsor the Report again this year, and while there’s still much to do to tackle the biggest challenge we face, it’s  clear that we can all be a little more hopeful with the recent change in UK Government to an administration with a far more positive outlook that its predecessor towards climate action.

You can download the full report here.

Key Findings from the Climate Gap Report 2024

We’ve highlighted the key findings below, and we encourage you to download the full report to dive deeper into the findings and actions we can all take to help close the climate gap.

Against all odds, some progress is being made

The reduction in emissions from food and heating is looking promising and on track to meet the CCC’s 2030 goals.

Transport is moving in the right direction, but not fast enough, and the current economic climate has seen a slow down in the adoption of electric cars and necessary infrastructure changes needed worldwide.

Ending on a  positive note, more consumer goods companies than ever before are reporting emissions going down.

The targets need a proper sense check as governments are urged to move to ’emergency mode’ 

With what we know now, it’s clear that the original targets set need to be revised.

The Organisation Climate Action Tracker, which rates the credibility of governments’ net zero plans, said in 2024 that “for the world to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5c temperature goal, governments need to move to emergency mode and strengthen the ambition of their 2030 targets and current policy action”.

Poor data quality in this area is increasingly of concern

The quality and timeliness of the data that we’re using to make these observations  needs a lot of work before we can be properly confident they are right.

For example, the most recent meat and dairy consumption data are from 2022.  A lot has changed since then, so up to date and accurate data is essential to inform the big decisions.

The change of UK government looks promising

In 2023 the backtracking by the Conservatives on climate measures was a serious setback, but we have since had a change of government, and some of those decisions have been quickly reversed.

The report also found that across four key consumer areas (food, heating, transport, and consumer goods) we are not cutting emissions fast enough.

If you want to know the key actions you can take to help close the gap, visit the Ethical Consumer website.

We’ll leave you with a little excerpt from our own Chief Executive, Gareth Griffiths who wrote the introduction to this year’s Climate Gap Report.

“As a business originally seen as very much outside the mainstream, we know it can take time to normalise meaningful changes in attitudes and behaviours.

Having been founded by people who dared to think differently about finance, Ecology understands that businesses can choose to lend their power in addressing social and environmental issues.  We’re active in professional networks and industry campaigns, whether that’s for better energy efficiency standards for homes or transparency against greenwashing.

That’s why we support Ethical Consumer’s endorsement for more businesses to drive positive change for climate and nature.

It’s for all of us – businesses and individuals – to act and agitate for the change we believe in.  So we all need to keep moving forwards.  Together.”

Download the Climate Gap Report 2024 here.