Carbon emissions to become a legal duty in the UK
In the UK the big news is, as The Independent and many other papers are reporting, A Bill which makes reducing carbon emissions a legal duty.
Yesterday the Government unveiled the world’s first delivery system for the targets involved in radically cutting back the gases that are causing global warming. It is based on two simple principles: make the targets legally binding, and map out the road towards them in detail.
The system is enshrined in the Climate Change Bill, unveiled by the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, which proposes to set into law the crucial aim of cutting the UK’s CO2 emissions by 60 per cent, on 1990 levels, by 2050, and lays out a statutory path towards that from which it will be very hard, if not impossible, for any future government to stray.
Enforcement
This is a Bill whose claws have been trimmed but it’s not been utterly de-fanged.
One of the Bill’s most innovative proposals is to establish a new statutory, independent body to advise on the national carbon budgets and to report annually on progress towards achieving them; it will probably be called the Climate Change Committee.
In some respects the body will be similar to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, but it will not itself set the carbon budgets, as the Bank of England independently sets interest rates; it will merely advise, and the final decision on the budgets will be left to the Government.
Although this is a criticism of the opposition parties, in practice, the committee’s advice is unlikely to be disregarded.
Penalties
If the Government fails to meet these 60% targets is would be subject to legal penalties.
If the courts found against the Government it would be open to them, for example, to order ministers to buy carbon credits (representing emissions achieved by other countries) to meet the target, at a potential cost of many millions of pounds.
This will stimulate massive amounts of investment into projects that generate carbon credits via both sequestration and emissions reduction, as well as alternative energy.
Despite what some jokers might think, carbon offsetting is a way you can start making a difference now. You can work out increasingly crafty ways of reducing your emissions with regular rounds of emission audits and their recommendations.
Measure, Reduce, then Offset. — DS
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