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Britain 'needs deeper CO2 cuts' Britain 'needs deeper CO2 cuts'
(about 5 hours later)
Britain will need to accept even deeper cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 to play its part in safeguarding the climate, government advisers will warn. Official advisers to the UK government have demanded Britain slash greenhouse gases by a fifth of current levels by 2020 - the toughest target so far.
The Committee on Climate Change will lay down UK carbon budgets for the next three five-year periods. The Committee on Climate Change said the cut (21% on 2005 levels) is needed for the UK to play its fair share in combating dangerous change.
This world-leading idea will oblige the government to make the economy operate within legally-binding carbon budgets. They propose firm carbon budgets for the next three five-year periods.
The committee will tell the government to improve its current 2020 target of a 26% CO2 cut (based on 1990 levels). It is believed to be the first time that any major nation has attempted this.
Spring budget If the budgets work, they are could be copied worldwide.
The expert body's role is advisory, but a ministerial source told BBC News that the government is almost certain to adopt its proposed carbon budgets - probably in the Chancellor's spring budget. The independent committee recommends that by 2020 it should be made almost impossible to burn coal for electricity without technology to capture and store the carbon emissions.
The government's task will look even tougher if it follows a committee recommendation designed to remove the wriggle room from the 2020 carbon target. This has major implications for the UK's energy policy.
Ministers currently hope to achieve up to half their emissions cuts by purchasing carbon credits on the international market - in effect paying poor countries to reduce emissions on the UK's behalf. The report says fuel will inevitably become more expensive to achieve the carbon targets. But it says the government will need to compensate poor households rather than trying to keep prices down.
The committee will say the government should achieve all its reductions within Britain - and only look to purchase credits if the EU as a whole adopts even tougher targets by 2020. To make the targets even harder for the government, the committee recommends the UK should not be able to buy its way out of its obligations by paying poor countries to cut carbon on our behalf.
The committee says the carbon budgets will be tough but they will be achievable (even in a recession) without damaging the economy or ruining our lifestyles - so long as the government has the political will. Until now, the government has been planning to buy up to half of our carbon credits.
It is publishing a 500-page report on how the budgets can be achieved with minimum political pain - a low-carbon diet book for the UK economy. The report will be widely welcomed by environmentalists, but they are angry that the committee has not set any specific targets for aviation - the fastest-growing source of emissions.
The report will offer advice on all sectors, including aviation which environmentalists fear has escaped too lightly, and agriculture where farmers will be asked to play their part by reducing emissions of methane from pig manure and belching cows. The committee has put aviation into the overall carbon budget but exempted it from specific targets until disputes over responsibility for international aviation emissions have been resolved.
The committee's preliminary report in October recommended that the UK should adopt an 80% emissions cut by 2050 in order to make a fair contribution towards the global cuts needed to stabilise the climate. Lord Turner, the committee chairman, said the cuts could be achieved without compromising our lifestyles or economy: "The reductions can be achieved at very low cost (an estimated 1% loss of GDP growth in 2020). The cost of not achieving the reductions at a national and global level will be far greater."
That was accepted officially by the government and Monday's report aims to set the UK on a measurable path towards achieving the 80% by dividing the effort into five-year periods. The climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: "We will give the report in-depth consideration but I am pleased to say that from 2009 carbon budgets will take their place alongside the financial budget."
The idea of carbon budgets is being studied closely by other major polluters and if it works it could prove a useful contribution towards the international effort to curb emissions. A ministerial source told BBC News that the government would almost inevitably adopt the committee's suggested carbon budgets.
The UK is a relatively small player in global emissions but it aspires be a leader in policy innovation. The big question will be how far ministers accept the committee's policies to achieve those reductions. The committee notes that the government has been good at making bold statements on climate but bad at putting firm policies in place.