Net zero will cost Britain around £5billion each year, the Government’s climate change advisers have said.
Consumers are also predicted to switch from meat products to hit the 2050 target.
Ministers’ climate change advisers said meat will be “mainly replaced” by existing alternative protein products.
It also said the costs of net zero will be around 0.2% of UK GDP each year on average under their plans, amounting to around £5 billion.
The report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said: “In our pathway, meat products will be mainly replaced by existing alternative protein products, some plant-based whole foods and, in the later years, novel alternative proteins.”
It added: “We estimate that the net costs of Net Zero will be around 0.2% of UK GDP per year on average in our pathway, with investment upfront leading to net savings during the Seventh Carbon Budget period. Much of this investment is expected to come from the private sector.”
The CCC also said flights need to be taxed to curb the growth in aviation.
While Ed Miliband’s plans for clean energy risk Britain’s chance of cheaper bills in the coming decades, green Tories have warned.
The CCC said households could save around £700 a year on energy bills if ministers follow its plans to reach net zero by 2050.
But the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) warned that Labour’s energy policies “leave little chance of achieving the Climate Change Committee’s vision”.
Sam Hall, director of CEN, said: “The government’s statist approach will only make electricity more expensive by squeezing out competition and paying whatever it takes to hit their arbitrary 2030 clean power target.
“It risks exacerbating our nation’s woes, holding back our nation and net zero.”
Households are set to save hundreds of pounds a year on driving and energy bills by shifting away from “volatile” fossil fuels, the climate advisers said.
Mr Miliband has insisted the Government is determined to do “everything we can” to protect people from the grip of fossil fuel markets.
The CCC also suggested flights need to be taxed to curb the growth in aviation just as the Government prepares to decide on airport expansion plans.
This could push up costs, for example increasing the price of a return ticket to Alicante, Spain, by £150 and a round-trip to New York could be £300 more expensive by 2050.
In its latest advice for how to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the CCC urged the Government to commit to an 87% cut on 1990 levels by 2040 overall, with aviation emissions needing to fall by 17% compared to 2023.
Professor Piers Forster, interim chairman of the committee, said they were being “less prescriptive on the airport capacity” than in their last advice in 2020 – when they warned there could be no net increase in airport capacity.
But he said: “We are still explicit that if the industry isn’t investing enough in the alternative technologies, and if we’re beginning to see a big increase in aviation demand, then the Government would have to introduce additional policies to restrict demand, and one of their policies could be for restricting airport capacity.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave her backing for Heathrow’s third runway project in a speech on growth last month.
