Leaked gov't documents are admission of climate failure
17 September 2008
NEWS: Green Party | Thursday 18 September 2008
LEAKED GOV'T DOCUMENTS ARE ADMISSION OF CLIMATE FAILURE
- UK goverment tries to undermine EU emissions targets with higher offset limits
- Green Leader: “we cannot ‘outsource’ our responsiblities”
Green Leader Caroline Lucas MEP today branded government attempts to undermine EU emissions targets by offsetting half our emissions an ‘admission of failure’ on climate change.
In leaked documents, obtained by WWF, the government proposes a large increase in the number of Clean Development Mechanism project credits which EU countries can use to meet their CO2 reduction targets – up from around 30% to 50% of all reductions.
The paper calculated that, if this change was implemented it would mean EU countries could emit an additional billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2013 and 2020 – equivalent each year to the emissions from 34 coal-fired power stations - and instead pay for projects in developing countries via offsetting ‘credits’.
As with all offsetting schemes, the actual carbon saved by CDM projects is extremely uncertain. The Greens are arguing that while developing countries do need help to create low-carbon industries, the EU must provide that support in addition to making large domestic emissions reductions, not instead of doing so.
Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas attacked the proposals today, saying:
"It beggars belief that at the same time that this government publicly claims to be showing a leadership role on climate change, behind the scenes it is lobbying to destroy the integrity of the EU's primary climate policy, the emissions trading system.
"The attempt to buy its way out of emissions reductions is an admission of failure by the UK government.
"By lobbying to allow up to half of the total emissions reduction efforts to be met by "offsetting" via access to external credits under the CDM, the UK government has demonstrated the empty rhetoric of its claim to show leadership on climate change - to the contrary, this is an act of irresponsible climate vandalism.
"When British Ministers proudly announced last year that they had struck a deal in Europe to cut emissions by 20% by 2020, the assumption was that those cuts would take place primarily in the EU - no-one expected them to achieve it by effectively "out-sourcing" its responsiblity overseas."
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