Climate change watchdog calls for dramatic cuts in UK emissions

 
In its first report, in which it proposes the steps the UK needs to take in the next decade to meet its long-term emissions targets and combat climate change, the independent body said the country needed to reduce emissions by at least 34 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.

It said the UK should go even further, if a global deal to reduce emissions is achieved by the UN next year – cutting emissions by 42 per cent relative to 1990 levels by 2020.

The report, Building A Low-Carbon Economy, said the targets could be achieved at little cost to the UK economy and through the use of existing technologies, as long as the right policies were put in place.

“The reductions required can be achieved at a very low cost to our economy,” said chair of the CCC, Lord Adair Turner. “The cost of not achieving the reductions will be far greater.”

The cost to the UK’s economy of meeting the carbon budgets would be less than one percent of GDP by 2020, the CCC said but confirmed energy bills for businesses and consumers could rise by 25 per cent as a result.

To achieve its targets, the UK would have to turn to clean forms of generating electricity, including carbon capture and storage technology, introduce widespread energy-efficiency programmes in homes and businesses, and reduce transport emissions, the CCC said.

It also recommended the use carbon offset credits, but said these should only be used by the Government to meet its 42 per cent target.

“The CCC has advised the Government not to purchase offset credits as part of its efforts to meet the 34 per cent target,” the committee said. “The Government should instead aim to make these emission cuts through domestic action.”

The report recommended the UK should undertake a huge expansion in renewable energy, particularly wind, in order that it could generate 30 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2020. It also called for a big investment in low or zero carbon vehicles and changes in food consumption away from carbon-intensive meat production.

The CCC’s carbon budgets, which cover the periods 2008-12, 2013-17 and 2018-2022, are a worldwide first, designed under the UK’s new Climate Change Act, which sets legally binding targets for the UK to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, welcomed the report, saying: “Plotting a course to a low carbon future here in the UK is vital if we are to reach our domestic goals and reach an international agreement. Carbon budgets will set our trajectory and send out a clear message that we will tackle climate change here in the UK.”

Green business representatives responded to the report by urging action be taken straight away by Government and industry.

"These carbon budgets set a fossil fuel diet for the UK economy and should affect Government and industry decisions immediately,” said Tom Delay, ceo of the Carbon Trust. “At the centre of the CCC strategy is an aggressive strategy to decarbonise our electricity sector using renewable energy and nuclear energy. If these budgets are accepted it would make it difficult to justify building new coal power stations until carbon capture and storage is commercially available. The case for massive investment in low carbon energy technology acceleration could not be stronger.”

Maria McCaffery, chief executive of renewable energy trade body, the British Wind Energy Association, also welcomed the report, saying: “By 2020 there could be over 30GW of wind energy installed in the UK. This report should help to lay to rest the misconceptions and misinformation about the role and viability of wind power over the next decade and beyond.”

But environmentalists criticised the report for not adequately tackling the threat of aviation and coal to climate change.

"The Committee clearly acknowledges the major threats that aviation and coal pose to our climate change targets, but it has fudged the question of what the Government must do,” said Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins. “Ministers must scrap plans to allow UK airports to expand and not allow any coal-fired power stations to be built without carbon capture and storage.”