To cut emissions from meat and dairy production – and free up land for tree planting to absorb carbon – people would have to eat 25% less meat by 2040 compared with 2019 levels, more than the long-term trend of a gradual decline in meat but less than recent years, and reduce dairy by 20%.
Reducing meat and dairy intake could boost health, and could be achieved through things such as replacing small amounts of meat and dairy with alternatives in ready meals and increasing choice and availability of plant-based foods in the public sector, restaurants and supermarkets.
Under the recommendations from the Climate Change Committee, around half of homes in the UK would be heated using an electric heat pump, compared with around 1% in 2023.
Some three-quarters of cars and vans on the road will be electric by 2040 under the recommendations from the Climate Change Committee, up from only 2.8% of cars and 1.4% of vans in 2023, with rules phasing out petrol and diesel cars.
That would push up costs, for example increasing the price of a return ticket to Alicante, Spain, by £150 and a round-trip to New York could be £300 more expensive by 2050, though that would be a relatively small proportion of the expected increase in household incomes by then.
