The Government’s role
The 2003 UK Government’s Energy White Paper set an aspiration for the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 60% and create a low carbon economy by 2050, accepting the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) of a need to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK Climate Change Programme developed in 2000 combined both regulatory and obligation based measures with fiscal and support measures to place the UK on a path to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050 through a combination of energy efficiency in the short term and renewables in the long term. In 2006, the Government published a review of the UK Climate Change Programme.
The package of existing and new policy measures in the Programme are projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 15-18 per cent below 1990 levels – the new measures saving 12 million tonnes of carbon by 2010.
