Report warns on UK emission targets

The UK needs a step change in its pace of emissions reduction to meet CO

budgets, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said in its first annual report to parliament.

The CCC claims that, in some areas, new policy approaches will be required to deliver the government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan.

The Climate Change Act requires the CCC to report each year on emissions reductions relative to the UK’s carbon budgets.

In its first monitoring report, the CCC has analysed progress between 2003 and 2007. Complete sets of emissions data are not yet available for 2008, the initial year of the first budget.

The committee found that emissions reductions averaged 0.5 per cent per annum. The group estimates that, going forward, reductions of two per cent to three per cent per annum will be required to meet the carbon budgets.

The CCC report indicates a direct connection between the recession and emissions. It is estimated that the decline in economic activity is likely to have produced an emissions cut of around two per cent in 2008 and the recession could reduce emissions in the first budget period by a total of 40-70 million tonnes.