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Electricity bills should be cut so people feel more value in using green technologies such as heat pumps in their homes, government climate advisers say.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) wants some levies and charges on electricity to be transferred to gas.
Consumers would then see a clearer benefit in switching from gas boilers, which emit CO2 and are a major cause of climate change.
The committee also wants the new government to reverse measures taken by former prime minister Rishi Sunak to slow down carbon reduction plans.
The UK is at risk of missing its 2030 climate target, seen as a crucial step on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, according to the CCC.
Net zero means that the UK will no longer contribute to the overall total of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Only a third of the actions the UK needs to take to meet the 2030 target are supported by credible plans, the CCC says in its annual report.
Key measures include increasing renewable energy, moving more quickly to electric vehicles and installing far more heat pumps in our homes to replace gas boilers.
Tree planting and peatland restoration also need to be significantly increased.
The CCC said the rollbacks announced by Mr Sunak last autumn had damaged the UK’s overall efforts.
In particular, Mr Sunak has established exemptions from the phase-out of new fossil fuels. boilers, which are expected to arrive from 2035.
These measures should exempt around a fifth of households.
But the CCC believes this “could seriously compromise the UK’s ability to achieve its objectives”.
The CCC says that to get back on track by 2030, the proportion of homes using heat pumps for their heating needs would need to increase from 1% today to 10%.
To encourage adoption, the CCC wants the new government to lower electricity prices, which it says are artificially high because they include things like taxes to pay for home insulation.
Although heat pumps, powered by electricity, are more efficient and use less energy than gas boilers, this is not currently reflected in bills.
“We think the key thing is to make electricity cheaper,” said Dr James Richardson, acting chief executive of the CCC. He added that countries such as France and the Netherlands were seeing a real acceleration in the adoption of heat pumps compared to the UK.
“It seems to come from this combination of initial support, which we already have, and a better balance between the relative prices of gas and electricity, which is not the case.”
The CCC believes that these taxes should be distributed more fairly with gas bills in order to provide a greater incentive for electricity consumption.
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Mr Sunak’s cancellation of home heating plans is not the only aspect of previous policy that advisers want to see changed.
They want to restore an earlier target to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, something the Labour government says it intends to do.
Some observers believe Mr Sunak’s attempts to dial back the speed of the transition to net zero emissions have shaken industry confidence in the UK.
“The UK is not the only country competing to attract investment in renewables, there is the EU, China and the US,” said Jess Ralston of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
“The signal that Sunak’s speech sent was very, very damaging. I think the hope now is coming from the energy sector, which wants us to get more stability and a long-term direction.”
The CCC also recommends planning changes to increase the number of electric vehicle charging points available.
The shift to electric cars is already said to be having an impact.
Despite an increase in car and van traffic in the UK last year, emissions from this sector fell by 1%, which the CCC says reflects the fact that we now have around 1 million electric cars on the road.
They fear that electric vans will not follow the trend, representing only 6% of new sales.
Full details of all CCC recommendations can be found here.
