GHG Daily
1/29/2016
While acknowledging that it is not in line with long-term global climate goals, the U.K.’s Climate Change Committee this week reaffirmed a recommendation that the government’s carbon budget for 2028-32 be set at 1,765 MtCO2e. Under the U.K.’s Climate Change Act, the committee is tasked with advising the government on setting successive, legally binding GHG budgets. This recommendation applies to the fifth such budget. “Our judgement is that our existing recommendation is sufficient at this time, although a tighter budget may be needed in future,” the committee said in a letter to Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd.
The committee noted that the existing framework for the carbon budget system was developed with a goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. However, the newly struck Paris climate agreement aims to hold the increase in global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases in the second half of the century.
“The emissions pledges made by nations (including the EU) did not change in Paris, and they are not on a cost-effective path to 2°C or below. The agreement creates a system to review and raise pledges, and the UK should continue to push for a revised EU pledge more consistent with the agreed global ambition,” the letter says.
