Recommendation 9

The next Parliament, led by our successor committee on net zero scrutiny, will be the first to assess progress in emissions reduction against five-year budgets not annual targets. This may require some changes and there is an opportunity to consider what has emerged as good practice in other UK legislatures where five-year budgets have been the norm. To some extent, a switch to five-year budgeting is about avoiding short-termist thinking about "success" and "failure" in emissions reduction. But it will still be important to know early if policies are going off track.