U.K. will beat Kyoto greenhouse gas reduction goals
By Susan Wilson
The U.K. will almost double its Kyoto Protocol goal of a 12.5 percent reduction of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2010. Right now, it looks as if the U.K. will actually have a greenhouse gas reduction of 23 percent below 1990 levels.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued its findings today in a report to the United Nations (UN) in honor of United Nations World Environment Day. Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said of the report:
Our latest report to the UN shows what can be achieved when Government, communities and business work together to reduce emissions. We already have significant achievements under our belt, but we know there is more to be done – we must continue to work urgently to reduce our emissions further and faster.
But our progress report tells those who claim there is no alternative to a high-carbon society: there is an alternative. We’re creating an alternative.
The Kyoto Protocol was signed by the United Kingdom April 29, 1998 and ratified on May 31, 2002.
Currently, delegates from 182 countries including the UK are meeting in Bonn for the Bonn Climate Change Talks that began June 1, 2009 and will end June 12, 2009. The talks are expected to lay the groundwork for the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in Copenhagen later this year and is expected to result in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
The U.K.’s stunning achievement in the reduction of greenhouse gases is an example to other industrialized nations like the US which has never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The U.K. has shown what a country committed to greenhouse gas reduction and climate improvement can do.
Climate Change Minister Ruddock has acknowledged that there are further steps to be taken and changes to be made, but with the commitment exhibited by the government, businesses and people of the U.K., those changes should be implemented smoothly.
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June 6th, 2009
Definitely puts Australia to shame. Our government is still trying to work out a flawed emissions trading scheme (with exemptions for most industries). We have rebates on solar power installations, but the technology is still prohibitively expensive.