Climate committee calls for emissions to be cut by over a fifth by 2020

The government's climate change committee has today recommended the UK cut emissions by more than a fifth by 2020 as part of a report, that if adopted, would represent one of the most wide-reaching and ambitious climate change strategies in the world.

The Building a low-carbon economy report goes significantly further than existing EU and UK emission reduction targets, calling for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by 34 per cent on 1990 levels or 21 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.

It also argues that in the event of international binding emission reduction targets being agreed at the UN's Copenhagen conference next year targets should be toughened to require a 42 per cent cut on 1990 levels, equivalent to a 31 per cent cut on 2005 levels, by 2020.

The targets raise the prospect of significantly higher energy bills for businesses and householders, as well as a massive government-orchestrated policy programme designed to enhance energy efficiency, increase renewable energy generation and promote clean car technologies right across the economy.

The report claims that the cuts to be delivered during the first five year carbon budgets running from 2008 to 2022 can be achieved using existing technologies.

"Our proposed budgets can be feasibly reached through energy efficiency improvements in buildings and industry, and fuel efficiency improvement in road vehicles, combined with a significant shift towards renewable and nuclear power generation and renewable heat," the report claims.

Specifically, it recommends that by 2020 renewable energy should generate 30 per cent of the UK's electricity by 2020, primarily through a huge expansion in wind energy capacity; that 40 per cent of cars are low or zero carbon models; and that policy measures are adopted that promote lower carbon activities such as better driving and consumption of less carbon intensive meat.

Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the climate change committee, said that the targets could be met with little detrimental effect on the economy. "The reductions required can be achieved at a very low cost to our economy," he said, adding that "the cost of not achieving the reductions will be far greater".

According to the report's calculations, meeting the 21 per cent target would cost less than one per cent of GDP by 2020, meaning that an economy that might grow 30 per cent will instead grow 29 per cent.

It argues that this is "a price worth paying" given the costs of climate change, adding that "many of the actions required to tackle climate change we should want to do anyway because these have economic, wider environmental and security of supply benefits".

The committee accepts that meeting the targets are likely to lead to significant increases in energy costs. But it argues that rather than seeking to keep bills low the government should devise a policy framework to support the fuel poor and energy-intensive industries facing "potential competitiveness issues", while allowing the higher price of energy to incentivise other households and businesses to curb energy use.

Beyond 2020, the report calls for the widespread installation of carbon capture and storage technologies on coal-fired power plants and urges the government to accelerate current plans to trial the technology.

It also sets tough limits on the extent to which the government can turn to overseas carbon credits, such as the those provided through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, to help it meet the targets.

The committee claims that while it "recognises the benefits of carbon markets " the government should only be allowed to cover a tenth of the 21 per cent target using carbon offsets. Should the more ambitious 31 per cent target be adopted it recommends that the proportion of carbon credits be allowed to 20 per cent of the target, but this is still well short of the 50 per cent cap on imports that the UK government has reportedly been lobbying for as part of current climate change negotiations in Brussels.

Environmentalists broadly welcomed the report, but there is likely to be criticism of the perceived fudging of targets regarding emissions from aviation and shipping, which may make it easier for the government to press ahead with airport expansion plans.

The committee has recommended that emissions from international aviation and shipping be included in the UK's long-term target of cutting emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but recommends that they not be included in the first three budgets due to "unresolved issues related to allocating emissions at the national level".

Instead it calls on the government to provide separate annual reports detailing its progress in delivering emissions from these sectors.

Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, accused the committee of failing to offer clear enough guidance on the issue of both aviation and coal.

"The Committee clearly acknowledges the major threats that aviation and
coal pose to our climate change targets - but it has fudged the question of
what the Government must do," he said. "Ministers must scrap plans to allow UK airports to expand and not allow any coal-fired power stations to be built without carbon capture and storage."

The government will now assess the report and adopt its own formal carbon budgets for the next 15 years alongside next march's financial budget. The committee will then publish its first report on the UK's progress next September.

Ed Miliband, energy and climate change minister, said that the report underlined the UK's seriousness about tackling climate change and would help bolster the UK's position in international climate change negotiations, such as the UN talks currently underway in Poznan, Poland.

"Plotting a course to a low carbon future here in the UK is vital if we are to reach our domestic goals and reach an international agreement," he said. " Carbon budgets will set our trajectory and send out a clear message that we will tackle climate change here in the UK."