Govt 'will miss climate change targets'
The government admits its targets are "ambitious"
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Thursday, 23, Aug 2007 10:21
The government is in danger of failing to meet its long-term climate change targets, an influential thinktank has said.
According to Cambridge Econometrics, Britain will miss its targets for renewable energy sources "by wide margins".
It says its report should come as a "reality check" for the government, which has unveiled plans to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
Responding to the research, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admitted that its climate change targets were "ambitious".
But the department insisted the government is "on track to meet our carbon emission goals".
Today's report claims that renewable energy sources will account for five per cent of electrical energy by 2010, falling short of the required ten per cent target.
It goes on to state that the projected fall in carbon emissions over the next three years will not be sufficient to achieve the 20 per cent domestic reduction aim.
But it acknowledges that carbon emissions will decline between 2015 and 2020, with the UK in line to meet its Kyoto target of reducing greenhouse gases by 12.75 per cent by the end of the current decade.
Report co-author Professor Paul Ekins, a senior consultant to Cambridge Econometrics, said his forecasts were a "reality check to the rhetoric on climate change".
"Since the 2003 energy white paper, renewable energy has been an integral part of the government’s strategy for meeting the challenge of climate change," he explained.
"However, our forecasts, which are model-based, suggest that renewables will only account for five per cent of UK electricity generation in 2010, compared with around four per cent in 2006 and rise to just over 12 per cent by 2015."
A Defra spokesperson responded by claiming that carbon reduction commitments and the zero carbon homes initiative would help targets to be met.
"We intend to put the 2020 target into legislation through the climate change bill, and the energy white paper provides a strong foundation for a range of policies and programmes that will help us reach it," the representative added.
"The UK's got a good record on tackling climate change and is already on target to meet and exceed its greenhouse gas reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol."
Commenting on the report, Friends of the Earth's climate campaigner Mary Taylor said a "fundamental shift" in the government's attitude was needed.
She went on to say: "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 three per cent year on year.
"We are currently nowhere near that and so are making the job of stabilising our climate more difficult in the long term.