UK reducing greenhouse gas emissions

The UK Government has committed itself to various national and international targets for reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions.

These include:

• the UK Kyoto target of a 12.5 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2008-2012 against a 1990-1995 baseline11;
• three UK domestic goals, all against a 1990 baseline, – a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide by 201012,‘real progress’ by 202013, as well as ‘at least’ an 80 per cent reduction by 2050; and
• a new structure, set out in the Climate Change Act, for translating into statute the 2020 and 2050 goals – including the introduction of a system of five year carbon budgets14 and a 34 to 42% per cent reduction by 2020.

But these targets have not been matched by effective action. Carbon emissions have risen in four of the last seven years, including 2006, and have essentially flat-lined since Labour came to office in 199715, as illustrated by the Figure

The UK has both international and domestic targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including those under the Kyoto Protocol, a domestic CO2 goal and targets outlined in the UK Climate Change Act.