UK To "Study" Proposal To Cut Carbon Emissions By Up To 80% - Reuters

[hatrack]

Cool! A new committee!! Now they can "study" it really thoroughly - maybe for another five or ten years!!!!

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Britain will study whether it can commit to cutting its carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday in his first major speech on the environment since taking office this year.

Brown has been challenged to take a strong stance on global warming by an opposition Conservative Party that increasingly stresses environmentalism. His popularity has sunk in recent weeks to the lowest since he took over from Tony Blair in June.

Brown's government published a draft Climate Change Bill a week ago committing to a 60 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, but environmentalist groups have said it should look at even deeper cuts. The government will set up an independent committee to study whether it should commit to even deeper cuts of 80 percent.

"Our vision has one overriding aim: holding the rise in global average temperature to no more than 2 degrees centigrade. This requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak within the next 10 to 15 years and be cut at least by half by 2050," Brown told a meeting hosted by environment group WWF.

EDIT

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKB48024320071119

[XemaSab]

1. Better than the US...

Here we agree to study the issue for 5 years BEFORE forming a committee to fix the problem.

(And yes, this is what they decided to do about air quality in the San Joaquin Valley... study the issue for 5 more years THEN maybe issue some air pollution control measures. Maybe. As if things like putting a ban on ag waste burning, wood stoves, cracking down on grossly polluting vehicles, conservation tillage, and any other measure that might HELP the problem NOW is just unthinkable.)

[Eugene]

2. UK must aim for near carbon-free power by 2020: PM - Reuters

Source: Reuters

UK must aim for near carbon-free power by 2020: PM
Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:19am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should get nearly all
of its electricity from clean energy sources by the
end of the next decade, Prime Minister Gordon Brown
said on Monday.

"Virtually all electricity by 2020 (must be) from
low carbon sources," Brown told a meeting of
environmental activists and businessmen in London.

-snip-

Brown did not define low carbon energy, but that
could include technologies such as combined heat
and power and carbon capture and storage (CCS)
fitted to conventional coal power plants, as well
as renewable energy and nuclear power.

"CCS will be a vital technology... if we have any
chance to meet climate change targets," Brown said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1926354520071119

[razzleberry]

3. US's permission not needed, just cut .n/t