UK Climate Committee unveils its plans

The new Committee on Climate Change set out its priorities for guiding UK climate policy on Wednesday.

The Committee on Climate Change will play a central role in UK climate policy once the new Climate Change Act comes into force. It will have responsibility for advising government on the mandatory emissions reduction targets for 2020 and 2050 and for proposing the levels of the interim five-yearly carbon budgets.

The committee published a document on Wednesday setting out its work plans and explaining the process it will go through when making decisions.

It divides its work into five areas:

setting the 2050 target

setting carbon budgets and emissions reduction trajectory up to 2020

deciding whether to include international aviation or shipping in the UK targets

deciding whether the targets should be for carbon dioxide or include other greenhouse gases

considering the implications for other issues such as fuel poverty and security of supply

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Climate change chief says optimistic

Mon May 12 - LONDON (Reuters) - Adair Turner, the head of the new Climate Change Committee, sees some tough times ahead guiding the government towards legal carbon reduction goals but says he is quietly confident of success.

The committee that will become a legal entity when the Climate Change Bill becomes law later this year will have to decide what cuts should be achieved by 2050, set five-year carbon budgets and monitor government progress annually.

"A lot of the progress we have made in reducing carbon dioxide emissions so far has been down to circumstances -- the end of the deindustrialisation of Britain in 1990 and the dash for gas replacing coal in power generation," he said. More >>>