BRITAIN STRUGGLING TO MEET ITS CARBON TARGETS

Reuters, 1 March 2007 

 HYPERLINK "javascript:ol('http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=20');" http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=20

07-03-01T090534Z_01_L28166021_RTRUKOC_0_UK-CLIMATE-BRITAIN.xml

By Jeremy Lovell and Gerard Wynn

LONDON (Reuters) - The government is having difficulty meeting its

voluntary goal of cutting carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2010,

raising doubts over its legal target of a 60 percent carbon dioxide cut

by 2050, MPs said on Thursday.

In its second report on the European Union's carbon emissions trading

scheme (ETS), the all-party House of Commons Environmental Audit

Committee called on the government to limit the emissions permits that

could be bought from abroad.

"The difficulties experienced in meeting the 2010 target ... raises

further concerns about the government's target for reducing UK CO2 by 60

percent by 2050," it said. 

"It is vital that the government does not rely on buying emissions

reductions abroad to make up anything more than an insignificant amount

of the 2050 target."

Leading scientists predict average world temperatures will rise by 1.8

to 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due mainly to carbon gases from

burning fossil fuels for power and transport.

The government will next month publish a draft Climate Change Bill

setting in law its voluntary target of cutting emissions of the main

greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 60 percent by 2050.

The bill is expected to become law early next year, but already

environmentalists and many politicians have vowed to campaign to get the

figure raised significantly.   

TEETHING TROUBLES

Under the EU's ETS, affected industries are meant to get a quota of

tradable carbon emissions permits below their future emissions, driving

reductions in the greenhouse gas.

But in the first trading period of the scheme from 2005-07 industry got

more permits than they needed, knocking the floor from under the carbon

price and making a mockery of the aim of emissions cuts.

In 2005, firms in 23 EU states were allocated total emissions permits of

2.07 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, but in practice they only

generated 1.97 billion tonnes. 

The parliamentary committee said there had been major teething troubles

with Phase I, but that Phase II from 2008-2012 was starting to shape up,

with the European Commission being far tougher on national emissions

proposals.

"The signs are encouraging ... that in Phase II the scheme will finally

be moving in the right direction," said committee chairman Tim Yeo.

"The converse risk, if we get the design wrong, is that the credibility

and potential effectiveness of emissions trading are fatally and

permanently undermined," he added.

He also warned that emissions trading was only a means to an end -- that

of helping the world move to a low carbon economy in the battle against

global warming -- and as such was not a panacea.

"The government must not shy away from the truth that emissions trading

itself is not a miracle cure for global warming, nor will it be

painless," Yeo added. 

(c) Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved