Britian not meeting targets. Carbon emissions still too high
Britain looks set to fall short of its target to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent in the next two years (from levels in 1990), according to Hilary Benn, Environment Secretary.
Reuters report:
Giving evidence to parliament’s all-party Environment Audit Committee, Benn said the actual figure in 2010 was likely to be a 16 percent cut — and that only with a significant quantity of carbon emission credits purchased overseas.
“We are not making fast enough progress on carbon reductions. We have got a long, long way to go. We have a very big task on our hands,” he said, highlighting the Climate Change Bill now going through parliament.
He acknowledged that extra measures would be necessary to obtain the necessary cuts in emissions of climate warming carbon gasses from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, but declined to go into detail.
Pressed on whether it was right for a country to be able to buy carbon credits from abroad to make its own performance look better, Benn said that it was a global problem so the solution had to be equal in scope.
It is a global problem, Hilary. Do you know what percent means?
With scientists predicting that average temperatures will rise by up to 4.0 degrees Celsius this century because of global warming, this is not going away.
