Government falls short of carbon dioxide target

• Labour failing to meet key manifesto pledge • Overall reduction set to beat Kyoto requirement
Juliette Jowit
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 February 2009

Labour looks almost certain to fail on its key environmental pledge to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most significant of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The latest government figures show greenhouse gas emissions overall fell in 2007 and that the UK is on course to reduce the national total by double the target set by the international Kyoto agreement.
However, although emissions of carbon dioxide also fell, its total decline since the baseline year of 1990 was 8.5%, substantially short of Labour's manifesto pledge of 20% by 2010. The decline by 2007 increases to 12.8% if it includes carbon credits bought from emission reduction programmes overseas.
"They could say 'we're beating our Kyoto target and few countries are'; that's true, but they have fought three general elections on 20% by 2010, so we're entitled to regard it as a reasonable yardstick of Labour's success or failure," said Stephen Hale, director of the Green Alliance, a coalition of environmental campaign groups.
Last night the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) all but conceded it had abandoned the target, saying in a statement: "We are making definite progress towards the challenging 2010 domestic CO2 goal. However, we cannot be complacent and must continue to do more. As part of the Climate Change Act, we will be setting carbon budgets and putting into place a clear strategy to bring about real change, plotting a course to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."
While the government's calculations are in accordance with international rules, critics point out that they ignore emissions linked to goods imported for UK consumers, and emissions from international aviation and shipping.
Based on the goods and energy used in the UK, instead of only produced here, and including all travel, a report by Dieter Helm at Oxford University and two other experts calculated that UK emissions rose by 19% between 1990 and 2003.
"What's important is the UK's impact on global warming [and] that includes other issues like aviation and consumption," said Hale.
The DECC said total emissions for the six key greenhouse gases in 2007 were 636.6m tonnes, down 1.7% from 647.9m in 2006. This included a reduction in carbon dioxide - which makes up 85% of the UK's greenhouse emissions - to 542.6m tonnes, down 1.5%. Emissions from transport and industrial processes rose, and those from energy supply, homes and business fell.
The new figures show overall greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 18.4% since 1990, or 21.7% if the impact of carbon credit trading is taken into account. This compares to the Kyoto target of a 12.5% cut between 1990 and 2008-2012.