Post by warriorwitch on Aug 23, 2007 6:10:44 GMT
Britain set to miss climate targets
By Jeremy Lovell Reuters - 1 hour 33 minutes agoLONDON (Reuters) - Britain will miss its goal to cut emissions of climate warming carbon gases by 20 percent by 2010 and will fall short of its aims to boost energy from renewable sources, a leading think-tank said on Thursday.
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Cambridge Econometrics, which aims to broaden access to research at Cambridge University, said in a report existing government policies and the European Union's emissions trading scheme were incapable of meeting the global warming challenge.
"These forecasts provide a reality check to the rhetoric on climate change that is now standard government fare," said Paul Ekins, Senior Consultant to Cambridge Econometrics and co-editor of its report UK Energy and the Environment.
"Our forecasts show that the government is set to miss not only its 20 percent carbon reduction goal by 2010, but also its declared target of obtaining 10 percent of UK electricity supply from renewable sources ... by 2010 and 15 percent by 2015.
Instead it will get just five percent from renewables by 2010, rising to 12.5 percent by 2015, the report said.
It said emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming culprit, would fall by only 12.8 percent from 1990 levels by 2010 -- and even that assumes a far faster rate of decline than has so far been witnessed.
After stabilising between 2010 and 2015, emissions would decline again with falls from power stations being partially offset by increases in those from transport and households.
"We expect carbon emissions to be some 15 percent lower by 2020, suggesting that the 20 percent goal will, on current policies, be hard to achieve even ten years later than originally envisaged," Ekins said.
TOUGH TARGET
The government is also committed to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like wind, sun and waves by 2020, a target the report said it would get close to meeting at 19 percent.
But campaigners say this will be a very tough target to achieve and that there are strong signs from inside government circles that it will try to wriggle off the hook.
Britain will put forward legislation within three months to cut carbon emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050 -- and half that level by 2025.
A Climate Change Bill is expected to go to parliament in November and could become law by May after parliamentary scrutiny and public consultations on the preliminary draft of the legislation ended this month.
But environmental campaigners who have been pushing hard for even tougher targets in the bill said on Thursday the Cambridge report showed how short of the mark government efforts were.
"This report shows the need for a robust legal framework in the Climate Change Bill that will oblige the government to reduce emissions by at least 3 percent year on year," said Friends of the Earth's Mary Taylor.
"We are currently nowhere near that and so are making the job of stabilising our climate more difficult in the long term."
Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods and famines and putting millions of lives at risk.
By Jeremy Lovell Reuters - 1 hour 33 minutes agoLONDON (Reuters) - Britain will miss its goal to cut emissions of climate warming carbon gases by 20 percent by 2010 and will fall short of its aims to boost energy from renewable sources, a leading think-tank said on Thursday.
(Advertisement)
Cambridge Econometrics, which aims to broaden access to research at Cambridge University, said in a report existing government policies and the European Union's emissions trading scheme were incapable of meeting the global warming challenge.
"These forecasts provide a reality check to the rhetoric on climate change that is now standard government fare," said Paul Ekins, Senior Consultant to Cambridge Econometrics and co-editor of its report UK Energy and the Environment.
"Our forecasts show that the government is set to miss not only its 20 percent carbon reduction goal by 2010, but also its declared target of obtaining 10 percent of UK electricity supply from renewable sources ... by 2010 and 15 percent by 2015.
Instead it will get just five percent from renewables by 2010, rising to 12.5 percent by 2015, the report said.
It said emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming culprit, would fall by only 12.8 percent from 1990 levels by 2010 -- and even that assumes a far faster rate of decline than has so far been witnessed.
After stabilising between 2010 and 2015, emissions would decline again with falls from power stations being partially offset by increases in those from transport and households.
"We expect carbon emissions to be some 15 percent lower by 2020, suggesting that the 20 percent goal will, on current policies, be hard to achieve even ten years later than originally envisaged," Ekins said.
TOUGH TARGET
The government is also committed to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like wind, sun and waves by 2020, a target the report said it would get close to meeting at 19 percent.
But campaigners say this will be a very tough target to achieve and that there are strong signs from inside government circles that it will try to wriggle off the hook.
Britain will put forward legislation within three months to cut carbon emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050 -- and half that level by 2025.
A Climate Change Bill is expected to go to parliament in November and could become law by May after parliamentary scrutiny and public consultations on the preliminary draft of the legislation ended this month.
But environmental campaigners who have been pushing hard for even tougher targets in the bill said on Thursday the Cambridge report showed how short of the mark government efforts were.
"This report shows the need for a robust legal framework in the Climate Change Bill that will oblige the government to reduce emissions by at least 3 percent year on year," said Friends of the Earth's Mary Taylor.
"We are currently nowhere near that and so are making the job of stabilising our climate more difficult in the long term."
Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods and famines and putting millions of lives at risk.