UK - Labor Breaks Climate Pledge, Claims World-Leader Climate Status

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Labour has admitted that it will break a key election promise to cut drastically the UK contribution to global warming. David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, revealed yesterday that the amount of carbon dioxide released in Britain would be cut by just 16 per cent in the two decades to 2010 - well short of the 20 per cent target set in Labour's election manifesto.

But he insisted that Britain was still a world leader in the battle against climate change. He told MPs that he would be issuing permits to British industry that allow companies to emit 238 million tons of carbon per year in the period from 2007 to 2012, which he claimed was a cut of eight million tons a year. The news was greeted with some relief by environmentalists, because it came only 24 hours after the German and French government had told their industries that they would be allowed, in effect, to increase their output of carbon over the same period.

Each EU government has until today to announce its targets under the EU's emissions trading scheme. The scheme allows firms which emit less than their permitted level of carbon to sell their permits to high emitters, creating a powerful incentive to invest in clean technology. Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This proposed 3 per cent reduction in CO2 from British industry is not ambitious enough. It won't even be enough to meet the Government's own target. But at least it's a reduction from what was allowed before, and at the top end of the range of cuts the Government consulted on. It's a step in the right direction, though still too small a step."

John Cridland, the deputy director-general of the CBI warned: "Such a demanding cut is likely to feed through to higher electricity prices and, with firms already struggling to meet current energy costs, the Government is taking a risk with the competitiveness of UK business."

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http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1147219.ece