ENVIRONMENTAL groups and experts rubbished the government's “dangerously lacklustre” new net zero plans today, saying they fall short of tackling the climate crisis.

The latest Westminster strategy was drawn up after the High Court ruled that the government’s existing plans would not meet climate targets.

Measures include cutting the cost of electricity, which can be generated cleanly, at the expense of gas.

Homes would then move from gas to cleaner energy “over the next decade or two,” said Energy Secretary Grant Shapps.

He said that “this is not a sort of rip-out-your-boiler moment” but admitted that “we’re in the low numbers still” of heat pumps, with around 42,000 being installed last year.

The government is extending a scheme offering £5,000 grants towards heat pump insulation to 2028, instead of its previous 2025 cut-off.

But the package has been criticised by some as offering little more than reannouncements of existing plans.

Friends of the Earth head of policy Mike Childs said the campaign group successfully took legal action against the government’s previous net-zero strategy because it failed to show how legally binding climate targets would be met.

He said: “With these policies looking dangerously lacklustre and lacking on climate action, we will be combing through the detail of the amended strategy and are poised to act if ministers have fallen short once again.”

The government’s revisions highlight an already-announced £20 billion investment in carbon capture technology and backing for new projects.

It also includes £160 million for port infrastructure to help expand offshore wind.

University of Oxford’s Professor Nick Eyre said: “The government has missed an open goal.

“The most effective and lowest cost measures to address energy security concerns are investment in renewable energy and energy demand reduction.

“These are precisely the same measures that the latest IPCC report shows are central to achieving net zero.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak warned the plans will not provide a Just Transition that workers need.

“Investment in clean energy, green tech and new ways of delivering energy intensive products is still far too low,” he said.

“And workers lack the guarantees that existing jobs will be protected, and new green jobs will be good, unionised jobs.”