Watchdog calls for 60 per cent cut in emissions by 2030

 
The CCC said the new target was compatible with the 2050 target to reduce GHG emissions by 80 per cent, but said to achieve the reduction, the proposed carbon budgets currently in legislation should be tightened. In the report, entitled 'The Fourth Carbon Budget – Reducing Emissions Through The 2020s’, the committee recommended increasing the target to 2020 from 34 per cent to 37 per cent relative to 1990 levels. It said this target could be raised still further to 42 per cent once the European Union has moved to more ambitious climate change targets.

"We are recommending a stretching but realistic fourth carbon budget and 2030 target, achievable at a cost of less than one of GDP. Any less ambition would not be compatible with the 2050 target in the Climate Change Act," commented CCC chair, Lord Adair Turner. "We therefore urge the Government to legislate the budget that we have recommended, and to develop the policies required to cut emissions over the next two decades."

Responding to the report, the Government said it welcomed the CCC’s advice on setting the fourth carbon budget and would look at its recommendations in detail.

"We know that the status quo will not be enough to cut carbon which is why we are planning to undertake a comprehensive review of the electricity market, increase home energy efficiency under the Green Deal and create a Green Investment Bank," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne. "We will formally respond to the report in spring next year."

The CBI said the CCC’s proposal for 2030 target could provide "additional clarity for investors", but required more investigation.

"Investors will only commit to low carbon projects if they are confident about the policy framework in the long-term. The Government's forthcoming announcements on reform of the electricity market and work to simplify the Carbon Reduction Commitment will be crucial tests," said Dr Neil Bentley, CBI director of Business Environment.

The CCC said reform of the electricity market was critical to achieving the 2030 target.
It said investment in low carbon technologies, including wind, nuclear and CCS, could reduce the carbon intensity of the electricity we use by 90 per cent by 2030. Such radical reform of the electricity market would require the equivalent of 25 new large-scale low-carbon generating power stations to be added to the grid over the next two decades, it said.

The CCC said further reductions could be achieved through the introduction of electric vehicles. It said transport emissions could be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030, if 11 million electric cars and 1.5 million vans were put on the road between now and then – the equivalent of a 60 per cent share of electric vehicles in new vehicles by 2030.

It recommended a major programme to refurb British homes. It said 3.5 million homes – half of all homes – could be insulated by 2030, while a further 30 per cent could introduce heat pumps instead of conventional heaters. It said there could also be a role for district heating systems using waste heat from low carbon power stations.

Meanwhile, the CCC said there was scope for cutting agriculture emissions by up to 20 per cent over the next two decades through a range of more efficient farming practice both as regards livestock and the application of fertiliser to soils.

The committee also recommended halving emissions from industry by 2030 through the application of more energy efficient processes and CCS technology to industrial processes and the use of biomass and biogas to meet 25 per cent of all industrial heat demand by 2030.

The CCC published its report during the UN climate talks in Cancun. The watchdog said, in order to stabilise global temperatures, international emissions needed to peak to 2020 and start falling by 25 per cent by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2050. And it said that while a binding international agreement was unlikely to be signed at Cancun, pledges under the Copenhagen Accord, if delivered, could be enough to achieve a peaking of emissions by 2020.

"The case for action on climate change is as strong as ever: climate science remains robust and suggests that there are very significant risks if we do not cut emissions. And countries acting now will gain economic benefits in an increasingly carbon constrained world," said Turner.