If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our or .
| Sourced From |
Greenhouse gas emissions should be slashed by more than a third by 2020, the committee set up to advise the Government on climate change has concluded. As a bare minimum, greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, must be reduced by 34 per cent, said Lord Turner of Ecchinswell who chaired the Committee on Climate Change.
But they should be cut even further to at least 42 per cent from levels in 1990 if an international agreement on setting post-Kyoto targets can be reached by the end of next year.
The targets cut much deeper than the Climate Change Act, which received Royal Assent last week and sets Britain a target of a 26 per cent reduction by 2020 but in CO2 emissions alone rather than overall greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gas budgets for the country and sectors of the economy were announced alongside the targets. They are designed to plot the country’s course to reducing emissions over the next 12 years.
Limits on emissions through budgets and targets are likely to mean, as the country becomes increasingly reliant on more expensive forms of energy, an increase in the price of electricity and will drive an additional 1.7 million people into fuel poverty.
Measures can, however, be taken to alleviate the problems caused to the poorest in society without any need to water down the targets, said Lord Turner.
By 2020 the costs of tackling emissions should be no more than 1 per cent of gross national product and he calculated that the “positives of the fiscal budget are likely to outweigh the negatives” as far as the Treasury is concerned.
Lord Turner said that the ambitious targets had to be achieved if there was to be a realistic and affordable chance of reaching the 2050 target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent.
“Climate change poses a grave threat to human welfare, the environment and the economy,” he said. “We need to act now, in the UK and as part of a global agreement to significantly reduce our emissions.”
He expected electric and hybrid vehicles to make up to 40 per cent of cars on the road by 2020 to enable the targets to be met. Because such cars are much quieter than combustion engines, he said, they may need to be “fitted with bells” or some other warning system to ensure people hear them coming. Other likely changes are dramatic improvements in insulation of homes and businesses, and more smart metering.
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, will take time to consider the recommendations but said that emission budgets would help Britain plot its course to a low-carbon economy.
“Carbon budgets will set our trajectory and send out a clear message that we will tackle climate change here,” he said.
Greg Clark, the Shadow Secretary of State, was pleased by the targets and budgets but was concerned that fuel poverty would be the price paid for the Government’s failure to get to grips with climate change sooner.
“I will be pressing ministers to act to stop the poorest energy customers being penalised as a result of the Government’s own lack of forward planning,” he said.
Tim Yeo, chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, described the targets as “challenging but realistic” and said that the report was “constructive and comprehensive”, while Tom Delay, of the Carbon Trust, welcomed the “bold new carbon budgets”.
Michael Meacher, the former environment secretary, said that the report was “a wake-up call”. He said: “Carbon emissions have hardly been cut at all in the last decade, and much more robust policies and much sharper action will now be necessary.”
The committee has recommended two set of carbon budgets to the Government, one an interim budget and the other the “intended” target that will apply if a post-Kyoto agreement is reached in December next year at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen.
Controversially, the Committee decided that aviation and shipping emissions should be excluded from the budgets because of technical issues but will face annual reports by the advisory body on the quantities they are responsible for pumping into the atmosphere.
There were mixed reactions to the committee’s recommendation that any new coal-fired power stations should be permitted only if there is an agreement that they would be fitted with carbon capture and storage technology by the early 2020s.
John Sauven, of Greenpeace, said that E.on’s intention of building one at Kingsnorth, in Kent, was “dead in the water”.
Others, however, felt that the recommendation would encourage new coal-fired power plants, which emit high levels of CO2, to be built.
“It is simply too high a risk to allow new coal plants like Kingsnorth on the basis of the promise that its carbon emissions will be captured at some point in the future,” said Steve Webb, the climate change spokesman for the Liberal Democrats.
To reach the 2020 target, especially the more demanding 42 per cent reduction, the electricity generating industry alone is likely to have to reduce emissions by 40 per cent.
This, said Lord Turner, will mean renewable forms of generation, in particular wind farms, will need to be expanded by about 30 per cent by 2020.
The percentage would reduce if nuclear plants were opened in time to make a difference but they, along with tidal and wave energy technologies, are more likely to make an impact after 2020.
Britain’s greenhouse gas budgets, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change
Interim budget for greenhouse gas emission limits — in the absence of an international deal
2008-2012: 3018 million tonnes
2013-2017: 2,819 million tonnes
2018-2022: 2,570 million tonnes
Intended budget for greenhouse gas emission limits — assuming international deal is reached in 2009
2018-2022: 3018 million tonnes
2013-2017: 2,679 million tonnes
2018-2022: 2,245 million tonnes
By Lewis Smith
{ 0 comments… add one now }
Leave a Comment