Government Targets
What’s the UK doing about climate change?
The UK Government has made the following commitments to fighting climate change:
It has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol which came into force on 16 February 2005. The UK’s target is to achieve a 12.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, by 2008-2012.
The UK Government has also set a target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2010. This target is seen as an important step in achieving the target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 (Energy White Paper: Our energy future – creating a low carbon economy).
The measures for achieving these targets are set out in the Government’s Climate Change Programme. This was published in 2006 and is the Government’s key strategy for its work on tackling climate change.
Renewable energy targets
Renewable energy plays a big part in Government targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions – one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. The Government has pledged:
To generate 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010
There is also an ‘aspiration’ to generate 20 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020
The Renewables Obligation
The Renewables Obligation was introduced by the Government in 2002. It is seen as the main mechanism for encouraging the uptake of renewable technologies as it encourages licensed electricity suppliers to source a specific and annually increasing percentage of the electricity they supply from renewable sources.
The percentage target began at 3% in 2003. The current level is 7.9% for 2007/08, rising to 15.4% by 2015/16.