The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has released a new report to complement its 2025 advice on the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget.
The independent, statutory body tested its cost and energy security conclusions against different scenarios.
It found that the total additional cost of a single fossil fuel price spike of 2022 magnitude is likely to be as large as the total net additional cost of meeting the pathway to Net Zero across every year to 2050.
In all scenarios, achieving Net Zero was found to be a more cost-effective path for the UK economy than continued reliance on fossil fuels, bringing a net benefit to society.
Nigel Topping CMG, Chair of the Climate Change Committee, said: “There has been a lot of public interest in the cost of transitioning to a low carbon economy. Going through an economic transition is exciting, but a sense of uncertainty about the future is completely reasonable. As such, it’s important that decision makers and commentators are using accurate information to inform debates.
“In light of current world events, it’s more important than ever for the UK to move away from being reliant on volatile foreign fossil fuels, to clean, domestic, less wasteful energy.”
The report also includes additional cost-benefit analysis of the CCC’s proposed Balanced Pathway to Net Zero. This pathway was modelled for the Seventh Carbon Budget advice the CCC gave the UK Government in February 2025. This is carried out in line with the government’s Green Book guidance.
The Committee’s key findings are:
- For every pound spent on Net Zero, the benefits outweigh this by 2.2 to 4.1 times.
- Avoiding climate damages is the most significant benefit of the transition. This saving is estimated between £40 billion and £130 billion in 2050.
- Energy losses are halved compared to today. Losses in a Net Zero system are valued at £30 billion per year, compared to £60 billion a year in today’s energy system.
- The transition is set to deliver far greater health and wellbeing co-benefits than costs. Cleaner air, warmer homes, more active travel and healthier diets strongly outweigh downsides like extra public transport time or potential congestion from increased EV use. These ‘co-benefits’ are estimated to provide £2 billion to £8 billion per year in net benefit by 2050.
