The UK’s Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change concluded in its first annual report in October that a “step change” was needed in the pace of emissions reductions in order to meet Government’s targets. Although the economic recession has helped dampen emissions, the UK does not appear to be on track to meet its longstanding 20% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target for 2010, or the EU-imposed 15% renewable energy target by 2020.
To add to the gloom, the upcoming Copenhagen Summit looks unlikely to produce a concrete deal on a post-2012 framework to reduce global emissions for at least another year. So overall nothing appears to be entirely on track when it comes to carbon. However, any sense that the UK Government is back-pedalling on this issue would be misplaced. There are a number of important initiatives that might begin to put us back on track to meet the targets outlined above.
Although the amount of funding being ceded to the Carbon Trust (£18m over the next 12-18 months) appears unlikely to produce the ‘step change’ required on its own, the Government has pledged a total of £120 million in investment in wind energy technology over the next two years. This in turn is part of over £900m worth of new funding to be provided over the next five years to hasten an offshore wind revolution and kick-start solar power.
In addition, the recently finalised Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, which starts in April 2010, and the creation of ‘feed in’ tariffs that would encourage distributed generation (also expected in April 2010), will provide additional regulatory support, as will legislation to require pervasive commercial and residential smart metering by 2020.
And the UK has further committed to injecting £4 billion of new capital into the European Investment Bank to help green schemes overcome lack of project finance due to the credit crunch.
At face value, these commitments appear to signal a serious push to mitigate carbon in the short to medium term. Let’s now all hope for some serious results.