Ethical Consumer is tracking the UK's progress towards sustainable living through its annual Climate Gap report.
The Climate Gap report simplifies the Climate Change Committee annual reports and translates the complex detail into clear findings in four impact areas: food, heating, transport and consumer goods.
This is a critical decade for climate action. Ethical Consumer is tracking progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK, and has produced five annual reports so far.
The Climate Gap highlights the gap from where we are at present, to where we need to be if the UK is to meet its net zero targets.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) presented its 2026 Report to Parliament on 24th June, showing the UK's progress towards its net zero targets. Ethical Consumer attended the press briefing to understand what responses might be needed from civil society.
Disappointingly, the report showed a significant slowdown in the number of retrofit heat pump installations.
The rapid take up of heat pumps by UK households is a key target in the national journey to net zero (and in Ethical Consumer's Climate Gap report's own metrics). However, the high cost of electricity, which is pegged to wholesale gas prices, is creating a barrier to more people switching to heat pumps.
The UK Government must fix flawed electricity pricing if it wants to encourage more homeowners to switch from fossil fuels.
The CCC's number one recommendation for the government this year is to "make electricity cheaper through measures such as removing remaining policy costs from electricity bills."
Being very focussed on evidencing its claims, it has published the table in the report to show the direct link between electricity pricing and heat pump take up in other countries in Europe (see image below).
The very high cost of electricity in the UK has meant that heat pump installers will often recommend complex home insulation projects before the switch to electric heating should go ahead.
When Ethical Consumer asked the CCC about the role of insulation subsidies, Nigel Topping the CCC's chair explained how sometimes "complex insulation projects can be the hardest thing in the consumer journey."
Removing the economic driver for households to do insulation first would clearly make heat pumps a more attractive choice. The CCC did however emphasise that it continues to recommend insulation subsidy for low income households.
Ethical Consumer uses the CCC's data extensively to help track 12 of the UK's main consumer climate impacts in its own annual Climate Gap Report, which is sponsored by Ecology Building Society. One of these twelve key impacts is heat pump installations.
Rob Harrison, Ethical Consumer editor, says:
"It's good to see a clear message from the CCC. It does align with what we've heard from the Heat Pump Federation too. Whilst widespread home insulation improvements can reduce the need to build such a large new electricity grid, its clear that making this a problem for individual households here in the UK is not delivering change at the scale we need to address climate change."
Gareth Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer at Ecology Building Society, says:
“The Government needs to end the dysfunctional link to wholesale gas prices which keeps the cost of electricity artificially high.
“If we’re serious about cutting our reliance on fossil fuels, reforming this pricing mechanism and bringing down electricity prices will encourage more homeowners to switch to heat pumps.
“The extreme weather so far this year is surely a reminder that we need to keep moving towards net zero or face adapting to a very different future.
"We work with Ethical Consumer and support its annual Climate Gap Report as we believe this project empowers consumers to make informed decisions on better choices for themselves and the planet.”
Jonathan Atkinson, from home energy specialist Carbon Co-op, says:
"Recent reports confirm that the number one barrier to heat pump adoption is cost, so addressing electricity pricing is key. But they also found that nearly 50% of those who want and can afford a heat pump don't make a purchasing decision due to concerns about disruption, bill affordability and a range of media headlines that create risk and uncertainty in their minds."
The Ethical Consumer's 2026 Climate Gap report is due out in October.
Chart: Heat pump market share versus electricity-to-gas price ratio for countries in Europe in 2024
The UK has among the highest electricity-to-gas price ratio and the lowest heat pump market share in Europe.
Source: Chart 4 in Executive Summary of 'Progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to Parliament'. Available from Climate Change Committee website.
Ecology Building Society has sponsored Ethical Consumer's annual Climate Gap Reports since 2022.
The reports track progress across four key areas for reducing consumer climate impacts: food, home heating, travel and consumer goods.
The full report contains three pages of narrative on key findings, which include:
This year we have introduced a new section on inequality, because the richest 20% of people in the UK have more than double the annual carbon emissions of the poorest 20%.
But its not only inequality in the UK we're talking about. The climate crisis is a crisis of global injustice, where the world’s richest 1% are responsible for nearly twice as much emissions as the world’s poorest 50%, who feel the brunt of climate impacts despite bearing the least responsibility for causing them.
So the gap between where we are and where we need to be requires systemic changes. A big part of this is challenging corporate power, which is something Ethical Consumer is particularly focusing on this year, even more than before. See our Crowdfunder campaign for more on this.
| FOUR KEY IMPACT AREAS (c. 75% of total consumer emissions) | Food (26%) | Heating (14%) | Transport (25%) | Selected Consumer Goods (10%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-2030 consumer targets based on the CCC ‘Balanced Pathway’ |
11% reduction in meat consumption 12% reduction in dairy consumption 30% reduction in food waste |
18% CO₂e reduction in residential building emissions |
c.40% CO₂e reduction in surface transport emissions 15% CO₂e reduction in aviation emissions
|
40% CO₂e reduction |
| Where have we got to? (latest figures against baseline) |
c.2% increase c.11% reduction in dairy consumption c.7.5% |
11% reduction in residential building emissions |
11% reduction in surface transport emissions. (12% reduction in car emissions) 3% reduction in aviation emissions |
7.4% reduction in consumption emissions (since 2018) |
| What's the gap? (reduction needed from latest position to get to CCC target) |
13% still to reduce from meat consumption 1% still to reduce from dairy consumption 35% now to reduce around food waste |
9% still to reduce |
32% still to reduce in surface transport emissions 13% still to reduce in aviation emissions
|
35% still to reduce |
| Are we moving fast enough? | Possibly on dairy, not on meat or food waste | Maybe on residential emissions and insulation, not on heat pumps | Maybe on EV registrations, not on aviation or surface transport emissions | Yes on repairs, not on emissions and reporting |
c. = circa or approximately
The 2025 Climate Gap report is free to download and contains more detail on the calculations we use and the reasons we have chosen particular indicators and goals.
The report found that across four key consumer areas (food, heating, transport and consumer goods) we are not cutting emissions fast enough.
The full report suggests key campaigns you can support in each area, as well as campaigns for wider reforms and systemic change. Linking with others with the same aims can help us to feel less overwhelmed, and to achieve bigger things. Tackling the climate crisis requires the institutions and infrastructure around us to be redesigned to make lower carbon choices the norm. Download the report above to find out about key campaigns you can support.
However, all our individual actions also add up and can have ripple effects. You can read more in our series of climate action articles - see the links below. The full report contains over 50 useful links.
We have a range of articles that will help you take steps to reduce your personal carbon emissions.
You can see how well your local council in the UK is performing against their net zero ambitions. Go to Council Climate Action to find your council and see how they perform compared with other councils.
You can then contact your council to praise them on current action (if appropriate), and ask them to do more.
The TUC Greener Workplaces Toolkit is a handbook for workplace climate action. It includes a section for “anchor institutions” such as local authorities or universities, and sections on travel, building upgrades, and planning for future skills needs. It also contains templates such as a survey for greener workplaces and a transport review.
The aim is to provide the information, tools, ideas, and case study inspiration to start taking impactful workplace and community action to address the climate emergency, future-proof jobs, and negotiate greener and fairer workplaces.
Many of the suggestions in the book could be adapted to the circumstances of freelancers and the self-employed.
Page 4 has a link to a 15-minute online course on ‘How to start talking about climate in every workplace’.
Download the toolkit from the TUC website.
You can still sign up to receive the calendar of actions, although the accompanying email newsletter has ended.
You can sign up via this simple online form.
We would like to express gratitude to Ecology Building Society for its sponsorship of the 2025 Climate Gap Report.
After you have read this report, we’d appreciate any feedback to help us understand the impact it is having, and improve this in future years.
2024 report: open the report as a PDF
2023 report: open the report as a PDF
2022 report: open the report as a PDF
2021 report: open the report as a PDF
The full reports include the evidence that sits behind the information.
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