Climate Change Committee: ‘This is our sixth statutory report to Parliament on progress towards meeting carbon budgets. In it we consider the latest data on emissions and their drivers. This year the report also includes a full assessment of how the first carbon budget (2008-2012) was met, drawing out policy lessons and setting out what is required for the future to stay on track for the legislated carbon budgets and the 2050 target. The report includes assessment at the level of the economy, the non-traded and traded sectors, the key emitting sectors and the devolved administrations.’ To read more click here
Independent: ‘The Government will significantly undershoot a legally binding target to reduce carbon emissions, after the coalition scrapped a successful subsidised home insulation programme and replaced it with the failing Green Deal commercial loan scheme, according to a hard-hitting report.
Under the current rate of progress, the UK will only reduce its carbon emissions by 21- 23 per cent between 2013 and 2025, leaving it nearly a third short of the 31 per cent drop required over the period, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) warns.
The committee blames most of the shortfall on the Government’s failure to set a renewable energy target after 2020 and its removal in January last year of heavily subsidised and free cavity wall and loft insulation, which helps households save energy.
It says the Government needs to act quickly to close the gap to avoid much greater costs in the future if the UK is to meet its ultimate, legally binding, target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.’
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