The independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) launched its second progress report, Meeting carbon budgets – ensuring a low-carbon recovery, on 30th June. The Committee annually reports to Government on the progress that the UK is making in meeting carbon budgets and in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
The key messages from the report
• Emissions of GHGs decreased by 8.6% from 2008-2009, but this is almost all due to the recession and increased fossil fuel/ energy prices. Emissions reductions for the various economic sectors were: power -13%; transport -6.5%; industry -18%; residential -5 and non-residential buildings -5%. Emissions from agriculture reduced by 1%.
• The UK has been set on a path to meet its GHG emissions reduction target (80% by 2050) using a series of 5-year carbon budgets. In this report the Committeee has recommended that likely outperformance of the first budget (2008-2012) due to the recession etc should not be banked for the second budget
• As the country comes out of recession, a step change is therefore still needed to ensure that the country is on track to meet its carbon budgets
• Achieving the step change will require new policies in at least 4 key areas:
- Incentives for investment in low carbon power eg reforming the electricity market, setting a UK carbon floor price (as proposed by the new Government) and putting emissions performance standards in place
- Mechanisms and incentives to deliver improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings
- Encouraging the move to more carbon-efficient cars including electric cars
- Agriculture – the Government should look at the full range of policy options to incentivise emissions reductions as the Committee believes that there is potential for the industry to make a greater contribution than is currently planned
The NFU issued a joint response with the AHDB, AIC and CLA to the Committee's report. "The industry is committed to delivering realistic emissions reductions based on scientific evidence. However we do not believe that the additional policy drivers suggested by the CCC can overcome the limited state of current knowledge and its practical application to meet the complex challenges of reducing non-CO2 gases in agriculture which are poorly understood and difficult to manage. Whilst the CCC says that there is still a lot of uncertainty around the level of emissions reduction from agriculture and the associated costs we are concerned about its view of the realistic potential to decrease emissions. However we are pleased that the Committee has recognised the complex trade-offs with food security and other services delivered by our industry"
“Larger savings in farming’s GHG will not be achieved without significantly increasing research and development in animal and crop breeding and nutrition so we welcome the CCC’s support for developing new technologies for UK agriculture. We would also like to see the CCC addressing the barriers that are getting in the way of farmers installing anaerobic digestion plants on farm, as AD not only reduces on-farm emissions but can also contribute to reducing society's emissions if energy from biogas can be exported to the grid.
The industry is united in its position that production efficiency gains should be the focus of activity, and that domestic production should not be compromised in the face of food security concerns. The CCC appears to understand this perspective that longer-term progress will require international agreement at EU level or worldwide, in order to avoid export of production and its associated emissions.
No comments have been made.