22 Aug
2006 - London, UK – The British government has
ducked a key opportunity to meet its manifesto
pledge to reduce the country's carbon dioxide
emissions by 20 per cent by 2010, according to
WWF.
By failing to set a sufficiently
tight limit on carbon emissions from heavy industry
through the European Emissions Trading Scheme
(EU ETS), the government has conceded that the
UK’s total emissions will fall by 16 per cent
at best.
The long-standing target was
a central plank of government policy, and appeared
in the last manifesto in 2005. However, in March
this year — less than 12 months on from a general
election —- the government’s Climate Change Programme
stated that the UK would only achieve a cut of
between 15 and 18 per cent by 2010.
“The government has now effectively
abandoned its climate change target to reduce
emissions by 20 per cent by 2010," said Kirsty
Clough, a climate change policy officer at WWF-UK.
"This is a missed opportunity
for a prime minister who has staked his environmental
credentials on tackling climate change. It is
unbelievable that a government can break a manifesto
commitment so readily.”
The British government, though
it’s EU ETS National Allocation Plan (NAP), has
proposed an annual limit on heavy industry’s emissions
of 64.6 million tonnes of carbon (237 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide) for the second phase
of the EU ETS which will run from 2008 to 2012.
This limit is just over two million tonnes of
carbon (3.5 per cent) below the cap in the current
phase of the scheme, which ends in 2007.
WWF believes the British government
needs to set the limit at 60.5 million tonnes
(222 million tonnes of carbon dioxide) in order
to meet its emissions reduction targets.
“Our proposal that industry
cuts its emissions to 60.5 million tonnes of carbon
through the European Emissions Trading Scheme
would have meant that business would do its fair
share to tackle climate change," added Matthew
Davis, WWF-UK's Climate Change Campaign Director.
"Under the government’s
proposals heavy industry’s share of UK emissions
will rise significantly over this decade.”
WWF does, however, support the
British government’s proposal to auction seven
per cent of pollution permits in the second phase
of the EU ETS and to deduct these from the power
sector’s allocation. Although this is short of
the 10 per cent maximum amount that could be auctioned,
the decision will ensure that the power sector
— the single biggest emitter or carbon emissions
— has to pay for some of its right to pollute
up front.
Anthony Field
