UK Gov Admits It Will Miss 2010 Carbon Targets, "Badly Underestimating" C Output

[hatrack]

The British Government has admitted it will miss its own target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010 by a large margin.

New projections from the Department of the Environment (DEFRA) put CO2 emissions in 2010 at only 15.5 per cent below 1990 levels, and note the target had always been intended to be stretching.

The UK Climate Change Program annual report to parliament said it expected emissions of CO2, the main climate warming culprit, to be 26 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

EDIT

The Government has even admitted that it has been badly underestimating national emissions, noting that if carbon embedded in imports from China were included then far from falling they would actually have risen sharply. A report issued by DEFRA ahead of last week's G8 summit in Japan said CO2 emissions fell by 5 per cent between 1992 and 2004. But it said they actually rose by 115 million tonnes or 18 per cent over the same period when the carbon emissions linked to imported goods were included in the calculation.

EDIT/END

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2307331.htm?section=justin

[XemaSab]

1. Say it ain't so!

:eyes:

[cedric]

2. Full report

http://www.info4local.gov.uk/documents/publications/898148