Pressure grows over carbon emissions
Carbon dioxide emissions in Britain are set to rise again this year despite the government’s commitment to tackling climate change, campaigners have warned.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) claims new figures from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) show emissions increased by 1.79 per cent in the first five months of the year.
When calculated for the year, the environmental lobby group says emissions are likely to increase to 161.2 mega tonnes of carbon – an increase of 4.7 per cent since Labour came to power.
“These figures show that the government’s piecemeal approach to bringing down carbon dioxide emissions is failing,” said FoE executive director Tony Juniper.
“We clearly need legislation to set a framework with clear targets for bringing down emissions year-on-year. Rhetoric on climate change will not solve the problem. Tough action is required.”
A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told politics.co.uk that it had already published figures showing emissions rose again last year.
But he insisted Britain was still on track to meet Kyoto targets of cutting emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2008-2012.
FoE suggest the recent DTI figures show Britain will miss its self imposed target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels by the end of the decade, and the Defra spokesman admitted that “more needs to be done” to meet this.
However, he insisted emissions have already been cut by 13 per cent and a current review of the government’s climate change policy, to be published at the end of the year, would identify the elements that were working and those that were not.
It would, he said, help the government get “back on track and make real progress” in tackling climate change and meeting its targets of cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
FoE is part of a coalition of ten non-governmental organisations and 200 MPs who believe a new law setting out legally binding targets on cutting emissions is the only way to tackle climate change.
Defra refused to comment specifically on the proposed legislation, telling politics.co.uk that when it was put before parliament the government would consider “whether that would be an effective approach”.
According to the latest digest of UK energy statistics published by the DTI, carbon emissions fell by four per cent between 1990 and 2003, despite an increase in emissions between 1999 and 2003.
However, last year they were 1.5 per cent higher than their 2003 levels, the result of increased energy demand.
