Archived press release

Climate change committee to publish advice on UK climate budgets

28 November 2008

The Government will be given official advice on Monday (1 December 2008) on what action it must take in the next few years to meet its legal obligation to tackle climate change.

Under the Climate Change Act, which was passed on 26 November 2008, the UK is legally obliged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 - with a series of five-year 'greenhouse gas budgets' to ensure that the target is kept on track.

Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "Setting legally binding greenhouse gas budgets will put the UK at the forefront of international efforts to tackle climate change.

"But the targets must be tough enough to move the UK rapidly towards a clean, prosperous and low carbon future."

"The committee should call for all UK greenhouse gas emissions to fall by 40 per cent by 2020 - this is the size of reduction that experts say is required to avoid a climate disaster."

"The committee should also put pressure on the Government to abandon climate-wrecking plans to expand UK airports and not to build coal-fired power stations without carbon capture and storage from the outset."

"Investing in green energy and cutting energy waste can create tens of thousands of new jobs, reduce our dependency on the yo-yoing cost of fossil fuels and put Britain at the forefront of a green industrial revolution."

The Climate Change Committee is expected to give advice on:

• The quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that the UK can release during the first three "greenhouse gas budgets" - each lasting five years starting from
2008
• The percentage of cuts that can be made though 'emissions trading' abroad • The extra cuts that are needed to take account of shipping and aviation emissions

The committee may also ask the Government to consider or reconsider certain policies.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the committee to recommend:
• A 40 per cent cut in all UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 • That five-year budgets take emissions from aviation and shipping into account • That the UK meets all its emissions reductions at home - not by trading abroad • That the Government immediately reviews its decisions to allow airports to expand and that no further coal-fired power stations should be built without carbon capture and storage from the outset

Notes:

1. A detailed Friends of the Earth briefing on the Climate Change Committee is available at: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/ccc_advice.pdf
2. Monday 1 December 2008 is also the start of important UN climate change negotiations in Poland, which Friends of the Earth campaigners are attending. A briefing is available at:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/un_climate_talks_poland.pdf
For further information please contact the Friends of the Earth press office on the number given above.
3. The UK is the first country in the world to introduce a legally-binding framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The campaign for the Climate Change Act was led by Friends of the Earth through The Big Ask campaign, which was launched in 2005 and supported by Radiohead front man Thom Yorke and more than 200,000 people. A short history of The Big Ask campaign can be found at:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/news/big_ask_history_15798.html

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust