UK'S EMISSION TARGETS SEEN AS TOUGH TASK

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[CSPP Note:  Articles like this seem it exist in a “Matrix”-like world of disconnect from reality.  It has been estimated that Great Britain accounts for just 2% of global emissions, and falling.  Even if GB stopped using energy altogether, that is emitted zero CO2, global temperature – if there is such a reality – by 2035 would be six thousandths of a degree Celsius less than if things carried on a usual.  This does not even account for the increasing rates of CO2 emissions from India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and China.  China has 30,000 coal mines, and is opening a new coal-fired power plant about every three to five days to 2012.

See:   HYPERLINK "http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20070217_monckton.pdf" http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20070217_monckton.pdf ]

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Reuters, 23 March 2007

 HYPERLINK "javascript:ol('http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2362381420070323');" http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2362381420070323

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - Judging by past performance the country will struggle to meet

ambitious "green" targets of slicing a third off climate warming carbon dioxide

emissions within 12 years, risking international embarrassment.

Regulations will have to be tightened to curb emissions from factories and cars,

and more incentives will have to be offered to persuade people to change the way

they live.

And that is only a stop on the way to the government's pledge to cut CO2

emissions by 60 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 -- nearly 10 times what it has

so far achieved.

Britain was the first nation to propose legislation setting binding limits on

greenhouse gas emissions saying it wants to set an example to the world. But

doubts remain over whether businesses and individuals will make the necessary

sacrifices.

"All the data that I am aware of suggests there is absolutely no chance of

reducing carbon dioxide significantly in the next 40 years globally and not much

more nationally," said social anthropologist and climate commentator Benny

Peiser.

"That is because traffic and transport is going to double if not quadruple and

the technology to compensate for that kind of steep rise just isn't available,"

he said.

But environmental analysts say it should not be difficult.

"People will have to change the way they live. Not drastically but giving much

more thought to what they buy and what they do," said Chris Goodall,

environmentalist and author of How to Live a Low Carbon life.

"Conserving energy is easy and surprisingly addictive."

FULL STORY at  HYPERLINK "javascript:ol('http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2362381420070323');" http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2362381420070323