'UK should follow Scotland's lead on emissions cuts', say auditors

Published Date: 11 January 2010
By CLAIRE GARDNER
AN INFLUENTIAL environmental committee has recommended the UK government follows Scotland's lead in its reduction of greenhouse gasses.
• Scotland has tough targets for cutting CO2 emissions, including from power stationsThe Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) urged the government to set the target for cutting carbon dioxide () emissions by 2020 to 42 per cent.The Scottish Parliament voted in June to cut the nation's emissions to that figure, making it the world's most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target.Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, welcomed the report. He said: "We have been calling for others to follow Scotland's lead on setting climate targets, so it is very welcome to have this influential committee support the view."After the shambles of Copenhagen, it is all the more important for individual countries to show leadership in setting targets. "Scotland is already working out how to deliver on its 42 per cent target and the UK needs to step up to the same level of ambition if the global community are to be persuaded to work together to prevent temperatures rising above the 2C safety threshold. "Scotland's ambitious 2020 target was heard loud and clear by many nations during the Copenhagen summit. If the UK were to increase its target, this would send out a clear message to other world leaders that they need to rapidly make up for their failure to put enough on the table during the Copenhagen talks."The EAC last night also warned action in the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions could be rendered "meaningless" if a global deal on tackling climate change was not secured.The committee urged the government to cut emissions more quickly at home – to prove to other countries Britain was serious about backing up its attempts to get an international agreement with action. The report examined the progress the UK was making in meeting its "carbon budgets", targets for cutting emissions over five-year periods set down in the Climate Change Act.It warned the government was only on track to meet the first budget (2008-12) because of the recession, and urged ministers to deliver the promised reductions and bring forward new measures to increase the rate of progress.Tim Yeo, the committee's chairman, said: "We must send a clear signal to developing countries that we are serious about making an international deal work – by meeting our own targets more quickly. The slower our progress, the less credibility we will have internationally."He added: "Setting carbon budgets involves making a series of difficult political judgements that balance what science is telling us with what is affordable, feasible and politically acceptable."The EAC also said the target for cutting emissions by 2020 should be increased to 42 per cent on 1990 levels regardless of what the rest of Europe did