Britain Needs to Move Faster on Climate, Monitoring Group Says

An influential government body gave what amounts to strong support Thursday to one of the main planks of the new British government’s plans to revitalize the economy: a crash program to accelerate efforts for dealing with climate change.

In a report to Parliament, the Climate Change Committee, a statutory body that monitors progress on the reduction of greenhouse gases in Britain, warned that the country was “not on track to hit” a 2030 interim target of reducing emissions by 68 percent compared with 1990 levels. Britain is legally required to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“The new government will have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments,” the committee said.

Speeding up the building of wind farms and solar farms is precisely what the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to do. He also hopes to hasten other measures like replacing natural gas boilers in homes with electric-powered heat pumps.

Mr. Starmer is betting that tackling climate change will not only help protect the environment but stimulate what has been a stagnant British economy.

The new government has already signaled its intentions by quickly approving three large solar farms whose developers were seeking a green light.

On July 9, Ed Miliband, the energy and net zero minister, appointed Chris Stark, who had been chief executive of the committee until April, to a new position leading the clean energy push. Mr. Miliband is also changing planning rules that have effectively prevented the building of land-based wind farms in England.