Government set to miss climate targets by 50 years - Corbyn
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Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, at Prime Ministers
Questions today revealed new analysis by Labour that shows the
government is set to woefully miss its climate targets by almost 50
years. If progress continues at its current rate, the
government target of reaching “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050
will not be met until 2099. Emission reduction has slowed to
a crawl in recent years, with the amount of carbon released falling
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Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, at Prime Ministers Questions today revealed new analysis by Labour that shows the government is set to woefully miss its climate targets by almost 50 years.
If progress continues at its current rate, the government target of reaching “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050 will not be met until 2099.
Emission reduction has slowed to a crawl in recent years, with the amount of carbon released falling only 1.5 per cent in 2018 – less than half the fall of 3.2 per cent in 2017.
Failure to meet the 2050 target could have catastrophic effects on human and animal life in the UK. This could include increased flooding and wildfires, greater health risks from pollution and extreme heat, and food shortages as a consequence of agricultural disruption, and loss of habitats and wildlife.
Only last week, the government’s official climate watchdog the Committee on Climate Change slammed the government’s climate change efforts as “being run like Dad’s Army” and leaving the population at real risk. According to the report, just one of 25 vital emissions-cutting policies has been delivered.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said:
“This government has spent too long treating the climate emergency like a PR exercise, setting out targets it knows full well it isn’t on track to meet.
“We’re already seeing the catastrophic impact of climate change, from wildfires in Yorkshire to flooding in Wales. If this government doesn’t change course now it will be the next generation that payS the price – not to mention the millions of people already at risk in the Global South.
“The climate emergency cannot be left to the market. Labour takes the climate crisis seriously, we got parliament to declare a climate emergency, and in office we will kick start a Green Industrial Revolution to safeguard our future and transform our economy.”
Ends
Notes to editors
Labour’s calculations are based on an assumption of a 2 per cent annual reduction in carbon emissions, taken from rounding up last year’s figure.
However, even an average of the last three years – which would arguably flatter the government by ignoring the downwards trend in emission reduction – would still show that the government is set to miss the target by over a decade, with net zero not reached until 2061.
If emissions reduction continues at its current pace, UK emissions will not reach net zero until 2099. This is based on three assumptions: · that carbon emissions will continue to be reduced by 2 per cent each year; · that UK emissions of 94Mt for all greenhouse gases is compatible with net zero, as argued by the WWF; · that roughly 80 per cent of this 94Mt will be CO2.
Keeping It Cool: How the UK can end its contribution to climate change, WWF https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-11/NetZeroReportART.pdf
The below table shows how much CO2 we would emit annually up to 2099, on the basis of a 2 per cent annual fall and using the baseline of 2018’s annual emissions figures. Years 2018 to 2025 and 2095 to 2099 are shown in the table, while the intervening time period is given in intervals of five years.
2018 UK Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions, BEIS The Tories once promised to be the “greenest government ever” but they have scrapped solar subsidies, torpedoed carbon capture research, and effectively banned new onshore wind.
“About 250 planned onshore wind farms are likely to be
cancelled because of an early end to subsidies, the government
has said.”
“The UK government has announced it is axing a £1bn grant
for developing new carbon capture and storage (CCS)
technology.”
“The amount of household solar power capacity installed in the past two months has plummeted by three quarters following the government’s cuts to subsidies, according to new figures.” The Guardian, 8 April 2016
The Tories have left us on course to miss targets set by the Climate Change Act – and official figures show that the shortfall is growing.
“The first carbon budget (2008 to 2012) was met and the UK
is currently on track to outperform on the second (2013 to 2017)
and third (2018 to 2022). However, it is not on track to meet the
fourth (2023 to 2027).”
Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee has said that “The Government is coasting on climate change”, saying that it “is currently relying on past successes to scrape by on its carbon budgets and is not even on track to meet them in full.”
“The Government is coasting on climate change. It is
currently relying on past successes to scrape by on its carbon
budgets and is not even on track to meet them in
full.” |