UK Government May Miss Carbon Emissions Target Without Urgent Action

It now seems that the Committee on Climate Change says that policies are needed within the next year to reform the electricity market and home efficiency in order for the government to reach its carbon emissions goals.

The new coalition government will have to introduce a ton of different climate policies over the next twelve months or risk the UK missing its legally binding targets to cut down on carbon emissions. The chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, David Kennedy, said that action was needed in four key areas.

He went on to say that the policies should be brought forward to reform the electricity market as a whole. The country has to make homes more energy efficient. Ministers need to protect efforts to encourage the development of electric cars. Measures need to be introduce that will bring down the carbon footprint of UK farmers as well.

Kennedy also noted that everyone has a light touch approach in the UK. They have talked a good game, but people are not seeing emissions actually fall. This is turning into a problem and is going to cause the UK to miss its binding target.

The chair of the committee, Lord Turner, said that the recession has created the illusion that the UK is tackling climate change. However, substantial declines in emissions are almost entirely the result of lower economic activity in the last year.

Although greenhouse gases fell by 8.6 percent last year, only a very small fraction of that was the result of the government trying to tackle climate change. Thus, policies with renewable energy and making homes more energy efficient may not have been as helpful as some think.