UK Legal Commitment to 80% Greenhouse Cuts

In a laudable world first, the UK has set itself the goal of becoming the first country to lay down legislation that makes a legal commitment to reach greenhouse gas emissions goals.

And not only do the government want to make it a legal obligation, they have also set the bar very high.

The intention is to cut greenhouse gas escaping into the atmosphere by 80% of its 1990 levels by the year 2050.

The EU has set a continent wide goal of 2020 as the cut off date for Europe to reach a 20% reduction.

The basis of the targets is the Climate Change Bill, which originally called for a 60% cut in greenhouse gases. Now a new amendment will call for that figure to be revised to 80%.

One problem is that while the UK opts for less emissions, EU partners Poland and Italy are not happy about present EU standards and are trying to escape the 20% by 2020 rule.

Poland in particular has total dependency on coal fired power stations, and a huge un-mined coal reserves.

Some critics wonder if the proposals are viable, even MP Ed Miliband, who is the government’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, contradicts his own proposals somewhat, stating that we need to ask if we can afford to back down from our commitments in looming tough financial times.

He also sees the new limits as a step forward to genuinely altering the worlds climate.

Critics counter that if this is a genuine desire to cut gases, why are shipping and aircraft emissions specifically exempt from the proposals?