UK’s top climate adviser says criticism of net zero goal is ‘defeatist’

Chris Stark urges Treasury to speed up pace of decarbonisation strategy ahead of Cop26 summit

The UK's top climate adviser has pushed back strongly against defeatist" criticism that the country's net zero target is expensive, and urged the Treasury to pick up the currently incremental" pace of decarbonisation.

Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), urged the debate over net zero to be framed in a more positive light: It can be done," he said. It is worth it ... I hope we can move away from thinking about the cost and see it as a mission to modernise the economy."