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Climate changing emissions continue to rise in Wales

Emissions of climate changing gases have risen in Wales for the third year running, according to official figures that have been obtained by Friends of the Earth Cymru.

The group has analysed data for 2004 [1], the latest year for which figures are available, and found that overall greenhouse gas emissions [2] in Wales were almost eight per cent higher than in 2003. Although the UK is aiming to reduce these emissions by 12 per cent between 1990 and 2010, Wales has only managed about a quarter of that. By comparison, both England and Scotland have achieved reductions of around 17 per cent.

Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by almost ten per cent. Despite an Assembly commitment to support a UK target of cutting these emissions by twenty per cent between 1990 and 2010, the level in Wales is now higher than it was in 1990.

Overall, the UK reduced carbon dioxide emissions by almost six per cent during this period and levels have been rising again in recent years.

Friends of the Earth Cymru spokesman, Gordon James, said:

"It’s disappointing that, despite many fine-sounding political statements on the issue, Wales’ record on greenhouse gas emissions is so poor. Emissions have now risen for three years running and we are failing badly to meet reduction targets.

"Special circumstances, such as the high level of industrial activity in Wales [3], can partly explain the situation but cannot disguise the fact that emissions have risen substantially in other sectors, such as in homes and road transport, while they have fallen in the iron and steel industry.

"Climate change experts are now warning that the situation is more serious than anticipated and that we have only a few years in which to turn things around. Far more radical and comprehensive measures will have to be embraced if this is to be achieved in time [4].

"The Assembly Government must introduce annual emission reductions targets, as proposed by Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign in support of a climate change bill. This would act as a powerful lever to force politicians to deliver effective policies to cut emissions.

"We have backed this up with a detailed report [5], produced by leading experts on climate change, which demonstrates how substantial emission reductions can be achieved provided the correct policy framework is put in place [6].

"We are pleased that a large majority of Welsh MPs have supported annual carbon dioxide emission reduction targets of three per cent as part of the Big Ask campaign. We have now written to all party leaders at the Assembly urging them to show a similar commitment in Wales by supporting the same targets when finalising their Assembly election manifestos and when the issue will be considered as part of the Environment Strategy Action Plan [7] in the near future.”

 

NOTES

1. The UK data has been produced by DEFRA and is available in its report ‘Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990 -2004’. This can be found at: www.airquality.co.uk/archive/reports/cat07/0611081428-419_Reghg_report_2004_Main_Text_Issue_2.pdf (PDF†)

2. The package of six ‘greenhouse gases’ are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, pefluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride

3. Industrial activity per head of population in Wales is approximately two and a half times the UK average and fluctuations in steel output, for instance, can have a noticeable effect on emissions. The bottom line, though, is that carbon dioxide emissions are higher now than they were in 1990 even though emissions from the iron and steel industry have declined by eleven per cent since then.

4. This point was made in the Western Mail on Saturday (January 13th) by one of the world’s top climate scientists, Sir John Houghton, who warned that “the world is realising how serious it is…we need to act quickly”

5. ‘Living Within a Carbon Budget’ by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change at Manchester University. Published in September 2006, this report was commissioned jointly by Friends of the Earth and the Cooperative Bank. It can be found at: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/living_carbon_budget.pdf
A summary of the report, called ‘The Future Starts Here: The Route to a Low-Carbon Economy’ can be found at http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/low_carbon_economy.pdf

6. The measures recommended by the report include improving energy conservation in buildings and the energy efficiency of appliances at home and in work; supporting more and cleaner forms of public transport; developing wind, wave, tidal and other forms of renewable energy on a large and a small scale; utilising more combined heat and power systems; improving the efficiency of fossil fuelled electricity generation and developing carbon capture and storage systems; and producing hydrogen from renewable sources of energy.

7. Action Point 1 of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Environment Strategy Action Plan promises to set “ambitious targets for emission reduction” by March of this year.