The Climate Change Committee has an important role in monitoring the actions taken by the UK Government to tackle and adapt to climate change.
The CCC undertakes an annual assessment of whether the UK is on course to meet its carbon budgets, and reports this progress to Parliament. The Committee also reports on Scotland’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions against its annual carbon targets. This includes tracking the latest emissions data and identifying underlying progress, as opposed to reporting on fluctuations related to temporary factors (e.g. the weather).
The Adaptation Committee (of the Climate Change Committee) reports to Parliament every two years on the UK Government’s progress in adapting to the impacts of climate change through the National Adaptation Programme (NAP). The NAP focuses on the whole of the UK for a small number of reserved policy areas (issues on which only the UK Parliament can make laws), and focuses on England for devolved matters, which make up the majority. This is because the Devolved Administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) make policy independently on devolved matters.
How we monitor progress
To see more on how we created the framework to monitor progress on reducing emissions, see our first progress report to Parliament (2009) and our new Monitoring Framework (2022), which sets out our updated approach to tracking UK progress.
- Please see our most recent progress report to Parliament (2022).
To assess the UK’s progress in adapting to climate change, the Adaptation Committee uses a variety of indicators that measure changes in the environment’s and society’s exposure and vulnerability to climate-related risks, and the uptake of adaptation actions. The Committee also analyses decision-making in key organisations to assess if the amount of adaptation occurring is sufficient to address climate risks, now and in the future.
- Please see our most recent progress report to Parliament (2021).
