Date published: 2007/08/03
The BBC says:
The government's proposals to tackle climate change need to be tougher and legally enforceable, say MPs and peers.
Their report said the target of a minimum 60% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 may not be adequate.
International aviation emissions should be included in targets and there should be a cap on the use of "carbon credits" to meet them, the joint committee said.
Friends of the Earth said the prime minister should set a higher target for cutting carbon emissions.
The report backed the government's five-yearly carbon targets, but said there should be annual "milestones" and reports. Both the Tories and the Lib Dems have called for annual carbon targets.
The joint committee on climate change was examining the government's draft Climate Change Bill - which ministers say shows Britain is "leading by example".
It sets out plans to reduce carbon emissions by a minimum of 60%, from the 1990 base level, by 2050 - and sets an interim target of "at least 26% but not more than 32%" by 2020.
The committee said that the 32% upper limit on carbon reductions should be removed, as there was no "compelling reason" for it.
And it expressed "surprise" that the government intended to buy foreign carbon credits to meet 70% of its emission savings under the EU emissions trading scheme.
It says there should be an "absolute cap" on their use, saying: "The bill as currently drafted would still theoretically allow all the savings to be made externally to the UK, notably in developing countries, and thereby postponing the decarbonisation of the UK economy."
The joint committee said it was a "serious weakness" that emissions from international aviation were not included in the targets and says the government is not taking sufficient account of predicted growth in aviation emissions.
"Further thinking" on legal enforceability of targets and budgets is needed, it said and it stressed the need for sufficient powers, resources and independence for the proposed oversight body, the Committee on Climate Change.
And the report says the government must give a higher priority to changing the behaviour of individuals with major public information campaigns.
The committee's chairman, Labour's Lord Puttnam, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there would have to be a "quite significant shift in behaviour change".
Great, let the people on the committee show the way and volunteer to undergo a "quite significant shift in behaviour change". It's easy. Step number one is for all MPs and peers to take a sizeable pay cut, and to take a sizeable pension cut. Then they can start to lecture everybody else on "behaviour change". Of course what they really mean is that the ruling elite, like themselves, should continue to enjoy all privileges in life (such as flying abroad) and the ordinary people should not. This is the first generation of politicians to actively campaign to make the living conditions of their citizens worse.
At least the committee is correct that buying foreign carbon credits is a bit of a sham. But the UK already lives that sham (as does the rest of Europe). If you buy steel from China then it is deemed that China is responsible for the carbon emissions produced when making that steel, but of course you are. So as long as the UK can substitute service industry for manufacturing industry, it can continue to emit as much (if not more) than in the past, and still claim otherwise under Kyoto-style accounting.
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