Despite the current global economic predicament, the UK government are pushing forward with their ambitious targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases. The latest addition to the climate change policy in the UK will be the introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), due to be introduced in 2010. All large users of electricity, (ones with an electricity bill of approximately £500,000 for the period January 1st 2008 – December 31st 2008) are CRC organisations and will eventually be required to take part in a cap and trade scheme, buying allowances to cover their emissions.  Where those who do well will be rewarded with bonus payments and those who do badly will suffer financial penalties.

On Target for Kyoto?

The whole world looks set to achieve the collective Kyoto targets which were set back in 1997 according to figures released towards the end of 2008 by the United Nations (UN). The 40 industrialised countries nations which agreed binding cuts in pollution show emission reduction results of 5% on 1990 levels (the target being 5.2%). However the UN believes that the reduction which has been seen is due to the collapse of the Soviet Union leading to an Eastern European decline and hence a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Currently however the UK is one of 16 countries on target to meeting their Kyoto goal, but much more work is needed. The UK government have already conceded that the goal of a 20% reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions by 2020 is now looking highly unlikely because there has been a switch back to coal burning by the power stations. They are moving back to using coal instead of much cleaner natural gas because the price of natural gas has soared in recent years and the implications of the UK climate change levy are not harsh enough to force the energy sector to continue using natural gas, or even move across to more environmentally friendly power sources like wind and solar.

Fluctuation in UK Emissions Reduction

The statistics from the WWF-UK’s most recent report on Power Sector emissions shows that there has actually been an increase of about 28% in emissions (39 million tonnes) between 1999 and 2006 in this sector. This is a real disappointment after the progress made in the 90’s nearly halving the sectors coal emissions partly because of the ‘dash to gas’ and reducing the total emissions by approximately by 62 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide by 1999 to 139 million tonnes. The 2006 level of approximately 178 million tonnes was the highest amount of emissions the UK had seen since 1992. The UK has been seen internationally as a forerunner in its battle on climate change and has received much praise; however these findings show that we are failing to set the kind of example which is needed at this stage. Fortunately the provisional figures for 2007 are more encouraging with a 2% fall in the total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK; although this needs to be bettered and continued into the future if the UK is to meet these challenging targets the government is setting.

Cost of Implementing Renewables

At present 20 countries are lagging behind with reducing their emissions. Surprisingly Germany are among these and they have been setting high standards in the turn to alternative power sources, with its feed in tariffs seeing solar power generation increase from 100MW to approximately 4,150 MW and wind power generation of up to 20GW by the end of 2007 which is 10 times greater than that of the UK. Economic concerns have also been raised about the levels of reduction being mentioned in the UK, with one senior MP stating that a 60%, let alone an 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target would be economically disastrous. These comments were based on the foundations that alternative energy currently cost significantly more than the traditional energy produced from fossil fuels. This would lead to much higher overhead costs for both business and homes, potentially leading to parts of British Industry closing down and moving abroad to places like China. So although the UK has performed well so far in its ambitions to meet Kyoto targets, these have been helped by natural move to gas in the industry, however it can be seen that the longer standing targets are going to be much more difficult to meet. Contingency plans and investment into improving the technology for the energy sector is a must if the UK is to prevent it becoming too expensive to operate in as a business and stop companies moving to other developing countries such as China.