‘Long-term schemes needed’ to tackle climate change
The government can meet its manifesto pledge on cutting carbon dioxide emissions if it takes radical action, a think tank argues today.
Britain’s carbon emissions have risen in the last two years and are now only four per cent below the 1990 level – far short of the 20 per cent target it hopes to reach by 2010.
Ministers are confident of meeting the Kyoto target to cut emissions by 12.5 per cent in the same period, but have admitted reaching their self-imposed target of 20 per cent is unlikely.
However, a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) says that the government can still make progress if it is prepared to take radical action.
The left-wing think tank recommends council tax rebates to encourage households to take up energy saving measures, and calls for the difference between road tax bands to be expanded to at least £50, with “gas guzzlers” more heavily penalised.
In addition, it calls for a tight cap on emissions from UK industry to be imposed as part of the second phase of the European Union’s new carbon trading scheme.
“The government should keep its manifesto promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010,” said ippr associate director Tony Grayling.
“But ministers should listen to the many business leaders calling for stable long-term policies to secure investment in low carbon technologies rather than the usual suspects resisting change. Far deeper emissions cuts will be required in future to combat climate change.
“It is in Britain’s economic interests to get ahead of the game. The UK government also has an important global leadership role on climate change, especially during this year when it holds the presidencies of the G8 and EU. Credibility abroad requires action at home.”
The report comes ahead of tomorrow’s meeting between the G8 leading industrial nations and China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa in London, where climate change will be high on the agenda.
Writing in The Observer yesterday, Tony Blair outlined the importance of international action in tackling the problem – and the need to look at ways to cut emissions that would be agreeable to different governments.
“We know climate change is a major threat. And worries over security of energy supply and rising oil prices are pushing energy policy to the top of the agenda,” he said.
“But we must understand that neither issue can realistically be dealt with unless the US, the EU, Russia, Japan, China and India work together.”
The fact that the US, China and India were unlikely to make any real efforts to cut emissions meant that other tactics had to be tried out, the prime minister said.
“We need to see how the existing energy technologies we have such as wind, solar and – yes – nuclear, together with new technologies such as fuel cells and carbon capture and storage, can generate the low carbon power the world needs,” he wrote.
Brazil and the US were already using biofuels, Mr Blair said, while the EU’s agreement to work with China to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions was a “modest but significant start”.
