Climate change targets urgently needed for Wales

New Government figures [1], revealed today by Friends of the Earth Cymru, show that Wales has been failing to address the problem of climate change. This comes just two weeks after the publication of a major National Assembly report into climate change impacts for Wales [2] which warned of more unstable and extreme weather conditions in Wales in coming years.

Figures for the emission of climate change gases were recently produced for the four regions of the United Kingdom for the years 1990 to 1995. The detailed figures reveal that Wales performed worse than any other region with climate change emissions rising by over five per cent. By comparison, emissions in England fell by eleven per cent while they decreased slightly in Scotland (less than one per cent) and increased slightly in Northern Ireland (one and a half per cent).

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

"Natural disasters, such as the floods in Mozambique, are occurring with increasing frequency as a result of climate change. Wales is failing to do its bit to address the problem. We need tough action from the Assembly on transport, industrial efficiency and fuel poverty to reduce emissions, and we need clean renewable energy to replace fossil fuels and nuclear power. The Government must not go soft on Labour's commitment of a twenty per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010."

Friends of the Earth point out that, as the result of a late amendment to the Government of Wales Act, the Welsh Assembly has the responsibility of ensuring that Wales achieves quantitative targets set by European and international environmental laws [3].

The group is writing to the Assembly's Environment Committee urging them to go for deep cuts in climate change emissions to include:

• a challenging target for energy coming from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, tidal and wave power and energy crops
• implementing traffic reduction policies
• supporting the Warm Homes Bill, which aims to eradicate fuel poverty and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from homes, and implementing energy conservation initiatives in Wales
• reducing the landfilling of waste and the emission of methane from landfill sites
• encouraging improvements in energy efficiency in industry

FOE Cymru are also asking the Assembly to provide up to date information on
greenhouse gas emissions.

Gordon James continued:

"These measures will not only reduce harmful emissions but will create jobs and improve health and the quality of people's lives. They will help Wales take a lead in developing clean technologies and in fulfilling its duty to promote sustainable development."

Notes

1. The emission estimates are available at www.aeat.co.uk/netcen/airqual/statbase/ ¬
emissions/devad1.html
2. 'Wales: Challenging Climate, Challenging Choices. The Impacts of Climate Change in Wales from now to 2080'
3. The UK is committed to reduce a range of greenhouse gas emissions by twelve and a half per cent over the 1990 level by 2008-12. The Government also aims to reduce the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by twenty per cent by 2010.