The UK House of Commons Library produces reports on a range of topics, including climate change. According to the Library's editorial policy, the reports provide "impartial analysis and statistical research to help MPs and their staff scrutinise legislation and develop policy".
However, the Library reports relating to climate change are seriously misleading through omitting crucial information, including
- climate change requires emergency action, not routine action, if the UK is to comply with its commitments, due to
- the small size of the residual global carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5°C
- the speed at which it is being depleted
- how soon the UK's fair carbon budget for 1.5°C runs out (in 2025)
- the scale of harm being done by the UK continuing to burn fossil fuels
- the criticisms of the UK Government's Net Zero 2050 strategy made by campaigners
- the criticisms of governments made by the UN Secretary-General, and his support for climate activists.
The UK House of Commons Library reports are seriously misleading in focusing on the UK Government's policies, without mentioning how controversial they are. The reports should explain the criticisms that are being made, so that MPs can decide for themselves whether the Government policies are appropriate, whether protests are justified, and whether a radical change in policy direction is needed.
The reports are in breach of the House of Commons Library's editorial policy and the omissions need to be corrected.
The UK House of Commons Library [1] produces reports on a range of topics, including climate change. According to the Library's editorial policy (see Appendix), the reports aim to provide "impartial analysis and statistical research to help MPs and their staff scrutinise legislation and develop policy", and "often include a variety of views and sources to help MPs understand the range of opinions".
Recent climate change reports (all published in 2025) include
- What are carbon budgets? [2]
- The Climate and Nature Bill 2024-25 [3]
- Aviation and climate change [4].
Assessment
The Library's climate change reports are seriously misleading through omitting some vitally important information, including
- climate change requires emergency action, not routine action, if the UK is to comply with its commitments
- the criticisms of the UK Government's Net Zero 2050 strategy made by campaigners
- the criticisms of governments made by the UN Secretary-General and his support for climate activists.
Why climate change requires emergency action, not routine actionIt is because of
- The UK's commitment to the Paris Agreement, and the implications of the climate physics
- the small size of the residual global carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5°C
- the speed at which it is being depleted
- the UK's commitment to equity between nations via being a signatory to the Paris Agreement
- how soon the UK's fair carbon budget for 1.5°C runs out. This is in 2025 according to carbon budget calculations e.g. by UK academics (see chart) [5] and others [6]. This means that the demand of Just Stop Oil for the burning of fossil fuels to end by 2030 is in line with the science, whereas the UK Government's Net Zero 2050 Strategy is not - and the House of Commons Library should be making this clear in its reports.
- The Declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 by the UK Parliament [7]
- Statements by the IPCC and the UN Secretary-General e.g.
- "unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach" [8]
- "Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a code red for humanity" [9]
- "This is a climate emergency" [10]
- The scale of harm being done by the UK's emissions, including climate-related deaths, displacement of people due to climate change, and biodiversity loss.
- The UK's total CO2 emissions, including imports and aviation, is about 9 tonnes CO2 per person per year - giving a total for the 68 million UK population of about 600 million tonnes CO2 each year. This means that each year's CO2 emissions from the UK will result in around 150,000 climate deaths, using the figure of 1 death per 4000 tonnes CO2 emitted [11][12].
- The moral obligation for for UK to keep its promises in the Paris Agreement to those most affected by climate change.
Criticisms of the UK Government's Net Zero 2050 strategy made by campaignersThe UK Government's Net Zero 2050 timescale of emissions cuts is much criticised for
- omitting greenhouse gas emissions generated in the production of goods that the UK imports
- ignoring the commitment to equity between nations in the Paris Agreement, which is usually taken to mean an equal per-capita shares of the global carbon budget
- ignoring the UK's aviation emissions.
Critics include
- the youth climate strikers [13]
- Jeremy Corbyn, while Labour leader [14]
- the Zero Hour group (promoters of the CAN Bill) [15].
The accounting flaws in the UK Government's Net Zero 2050 timescale would result is the UK taking three times its per-capita share of the global carbon budget [5][6]. This is often referred to as 'carbon colonialism'.
Criticisms of governments and support for climate activists by the UN Secretary-GeneralThe United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said
- "Some government and business leaders are saying one thing — but doing another. Simply put, they are lying." [10]
- "We owe a debt to young people, civil society and indigenous communities for sounding the alarm and holding leaders accountable." [10]
- "Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels." [10]
An example report: Aviation and climate change
Aviation and climate change is a 50-page .pdf report, published by the House of Commons Library in March 2025 [4].
It is fundamentally flawed in that the report unquestionably accepts the Government's Climate Change Committee as a reliable source, and refers to it as 'independent', despite its members being appointed by the Government, and despite the many criticisms of its reports.
The House of Commons Library report makes no mention of emergency action - the actions that are discussed are merely gradual decabonisation, as if this is acceptable. The report mentions the Paris Agreement but ignores the implication of the Agreement of rapid reduction in CO
2 emissions meaning that leisure aviation is not affordable within the UK's energy budget and has to be rapidly phased out. The report mentions carbon budgets, but only in the very narrow sense of the carbon budgets set by the UK Government's Climate Change Committee, without giving the wider picture from academic sources.
The report is not in line with the House of Commons Library editorial policy (see Appendix) since
- the editorial policy is to report impartial analysis, but the aviation report sets out only the UK Government's plans and omits criticisms
- the editorial policy is that "publications are informed by evidence, ... and relevant sources", but the aviation report omits the crucial piece of evidence that the UK's fair carbon budget for 1.5°C runs out in 2025, or soon after [5][6][16] depending on assumptions, and omits the scale of harm being done by the UK's aviation emissions. UK aviation CO2 emissions are around 0.84 tonnes per person per year [17]. So the total mortality cost will be 14,000 climate related deaths for each year that UK aviation continues [11][12] (equivalent to a weekly plane crash at a UK airport killing 270 people). The Library report should highlight this scale of harm.
Conclusions
The UK House of Commons Library reports on climate change are incomplete in focusing on the UK Government's policies, without an explanation of the criticisms that are being made that would enable MPs to decide for themselves whether the policies are appropriate, whether protests are justified, and whether a radical change in policy direction is needed.
Climate psychologists describe
implicatory climate denial, where people accept that climate change is happening and is due to mankind's burning of fossil fuel, but fail to face up to the psychological, political or moral implications [18], and they find that this implicatory climate denial is widespread across society. The Library reports are contributing this implicatory climate denial.
The Library reports on climate change are in breach of the House of Commons Library's editorial policy, and the omissions need to be corrected.
References
Appendix
The House of Commons Library has an
editorial policy [19]. This includes
"The House of Commons Library is a research and information service based in the UK Parliament. We publish impartial analysis and statistical research to help MPs and their staff scrutinise legislation, develop policy, and support constituents. We work for MPs of all parties.
"We strive for accuracy and impartiality. Our publications are informed by evidence, our knowledge of the topics we cover and relevant sources. When covering politically controversial topics we often include a variety of views and sources to help MPs understand the range of opinions. These do not reflect the views of the authors or the House of Commons Library."
First published: 4 Mar 2025 0
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