UPDATE - Environmental watchdog presses for carbon tax
Date: 19-Jun-00
Country: UK
Author: Rajiv Sekhri
"It (the carbon tax) would be a better instrument than the climate change levy
that the government plans to introduce next April," said Sir Tom Blundell,
chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
Urging a 60 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the next 50 years,
the commission expressed doubt about the government's plan to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions by 20 percent within the next 10 years.
At a United Nations conference in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, Britain agreed to reduce
its emissions of harmful and climate changing greenhouse gases, which are thought
to contribute to global warming. It pledged to cut them by 12.5 percent from 1990
levels by 2012.
Britain also committed itself to slashing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent
over the same time.
UK EMISSIONS REDUCING
"UK emissions of carbon dioxide have been gradually coming down since 1990," said
Professor Richard Macrory at the University of Reading, a member of the
commission.
"We've been having our cake and eating it ... But, frankly, we think that as (the
government's plan) now stands it falls some way short of delivering the 20
percent target."
Macrory said more coherence was needed among different parts of the government to
deliver results.
"They are not all singing from the same hymn sheet," he said. "We need energy and
environmental targets that are more ambitious."
DISASTER WARNING
The commission warned that if carbon dioxide emissions were not reduced the world
could face an environmental disaster. To reduce emissions, the independent body
that advises the government highlighted the following recommendations from its
list of 87:
* creating a Sustainable Energy Agency to promote energy efficiency
* quadrupling government support for energy-related research and development
* exploring alternative energy resources, such as hydro power, tidal barrages,
winds, waves and sunshine and non-fossil fuels like methane from landfills.
The commission said nuclear power could not be part of the answer until the
growing stockpile of radioactive nuclear waste from existing nuclear power
stations was disposed of to the satisfaction of scientists and ordinary people.
