Government accused of fudging environmental targets

The government's strategy of setting environmental targets is failing to deliver results, with 60 per cent of the goals set since 1997 either already missed, likely to be missed, or so vague as to be meaningless.

That is the conclusion of a new report from centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, which analysed 138 high-level environmental targets set by government and found over half have either already been missed, or are unlikely to be met.

It predicts that two-thirds of climate change targets are likely to be missed, while 88 per cent of targets for biodiversity have been missed. The one silver lining was in the field of waste and recycling where over two-thirds of targets have been met or are on track to be achieved.

Report author, Tara Singh, said that not only was the government consistently missing environmental targets it is also indulging in "creative accounting" measures to create the impression that targets are being reached.

The report cites the government's decision to not include emissions from aviation in the targets set out in the Climate Change Bill as evidence of its willingness to set lax reporting criteria in order to increase the chances of goals being met. "The atmosphere does not care about accounting tricks, it cares about the amount of carbon in the air," said Singh. "Trying to take some of the UK's carbon emissions off our carbon balance sheet is fundamentally dishonest – and potentially very dangerous in the fight to tackle climate change. "

The study also accuses the government of watering down or fudging targets that it is in danger of missing, noting that since it was originally announced in 1999 the government's goal of cutting emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2010 has shifted from being a hard target to an aspiration to "move towards" a 20 per cent cut.

"The government has a commitment to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2010," added Singh. "It also has a separate commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to cut all Greenhouse Gases by 12.5 per cent by 2012. This government deliberately conflates the two, in order to confuse the public into thinking the 20 per cent carbon goal is still well on track. Now the government talks only of the much looser Kyoto Target."

A spokeswoman for Defra insisted that the government was continuing to make "good progress" against its environmental goals. "There is no point setting ourselves easy targets," she said. "That is why the goals we set ourselves are challenging."

She added that the government had put in place "rigorous monitoring" processes to track its environmental performance and provided a "transparent measure of how well we are performing in each area" through a number of reports, including Defra's annual report and its autumn performance review.