08 Dec 2010 01:12:09
CCC: UK should cut emissions by 60% by 2030
The UK should aim to cut carbon emissions by 46 percent on today's levels within the next two decades, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has recommended.
Releasing its fourth carbon budget report, for the years 2023 to 2027, the CCC called for a 60 percent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2030.
It also recommended the current 2020 carbon budget should be "tightened" from a 34 percent reduction on 1990 levels to a 37 percent cut.
This is higher than the European Union target, which calls for a 20 percent cut by 2020.
Lord Adair Turner, head of the CCC, claimed: "Any less ambition would not be compatible with the 2050 target in the Climate Change Act."
The committee named a number of factors it believes could lead to the emissions reductions required, including a "radical decarbonisation and reform of the electricity market".
In addition, it called for a more widespread use of electric vehicles, the transformation of the UK's built environment, and the use of more carbon-efficient practices on farms.
A combination of the use of carbon capture and storage technology, biomass and biogas heating and more energy efficient practices was said to be able to cut emissions from industry by half.
