Are we on target? Audit of UK Greenhouse Gas emissions to 2020: will current Government policies achieve significant reductions?

The UK Government has set targets to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by at least 12.5% by 2012 and 60% by 2050 compared with the baseline emissions of 1990. Compared with other countries these are very ambitious targets and provide international leadership in tackling global warming. It has also set policy aims to achieve significant cuts in GHG emissions by 2020. In the DEFRA Climate Change Review (2006) the policy projection was to achieve a cut in GHGs of ~20% by 2020. In the subsequent DTI Energy Challenge Report (2006) additional policies are estimated to add an extra 19.5-25.3 MtC savings which would achieve a total cut in GHG emissions of ~30% by 2020. This report assesses the UK Government’s current policies to reduce carbon emissions and the likelihood of achieving their stated targets and policy aims. First the report provides a historic policy audit to assess whether Government policies have been able to reduce carbon emissions since their introduction. Second the current portfolio of policies will be assessed in terms of whether they will deliver significant reductions in the future. The report focus’ on the carbon reduction targets of the UK Government for 2012 and 2020. It reviews the four major sectors of Energy Supply, Business, Domestic and Transport. Minor sectors such as agriculture, forestry and land use changes and the public sector are not dealt with in this report as their contribution is small. In 2004 these sectors contributed less than 3% of the UK total carbon dioxide emissions