Download or read book House of Commons Environmental Audit Office Progress on Carbon Budgets HC 60 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK's existing carbon budgets represent the minimum level of emissions reduction required to avoid a global 2 degrees temperature rise - regarded as a dangerous threshold - and the UK's leading climate scientists do not believe loosening the budgets is warranted. The current (2008-2012) and second (2013-2017) carbon budgets will be easily met because of the recession. But the UK is not on track to meet the third (2018-22) and fourth budgets (2023-2027), because not enough progress is being made in decarbonising transport, buildings and heat production. The Government's Carbon Plan - which set milestones for five key Government Departments to cut carbon - is out of date without any quarterly progress reports published yet. The Green Deal has also had low take-up rates so far. The Government should set a 2030 decarbonisation target for the power sector now, rather than in 2016 as the Energy Bill sets out. The Government should also reconsider placing a statutory duty on local authorities to produce low-carbon plans for their area. The current low-carbon price in the EU ETS - the result of the economic downturn of recent years and over-allocation of emissions permits - also means that that scheme will not deliver the emissions reductions envisaged when the fourth carbon budget was set. Without any tightening of the EU ETS increased pressure will therefore be placed on the non-traded sector, which will have to produce further emissions reductions to cover the emerging gap left by the traded sector

Download or read book Journals of the House of Commons written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 952 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sustainable Development Reporting by Government Departments written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-28 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The regular annual report, the Sustainable Development in Government report, covering the whole of central government on environmental and sustainable development issues, is seen as a success in the "greening government" initiative since 1997, along with the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate. Reporting by individual departments is less satisfactory. The Framework contains targets for departments on public reporting of their sustainable development impacts, but they are neither demanding nor specific. Some significant areas of departmental activity fall outside the parameters for sustainable development reporting, for example involvement in PFI contracts, and the Committee wants departments to be able to report on these matters. The UK Sustainable Development Strategy required all departments and executive agencies to produce an annual Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP) by December 2005. The Committee is disappointed that 14 departments and agencies did not meet this deadline. The Committee would like SDAPs to be published alongside the departmental annual reports in the spring. This report also includes, as an annex (p. 11-41), the National Audit Office briefing, detailing the findings of its review of annual sustainable development reporting by UK government departments in 2004.

Download or read book Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An area of tropical forest the size of England continues to be lost each year. This gives rise to around 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, greater than global emissions from transport. Addressing deforestation is as essential as decarbonising electricity or transport if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change. A failure to act on deforestation could double the cost of avoiding dangerous climate change to 2030. Deforestation is caused by a range of factors, many of which are exacerbated by a growing global population and increasing consumption. Halting deforestation requires: (a) support for rainforest nations to help them manage their development so that it does not allow continued deforestation; (b) management of the demand for commodities whose production encourages deforestation; and (c) the introduction of a mechanism to pay developing countries for maintaining, and in due course recreating, their forests. The UK needs to act in all three areas if its policies on deforestation are to be successful. Ignoring any one undermines the effectiveness and durability of action in the other areas. As part of this work the Government must: remove subsidies that contribute to deforestation, such as biofuels policy; develop sustainability standards for agricultural commodities; implement and enforce government timber procurement; and, seek an EU-wide ban on illegal timber imports combined with robust sanctions. Illegal timber imports are still a fact of life within the UK timber trade. The economic, environmental and development case for immediate action on deforestation is clear. But success is possible only if the international community works together effectively.

Download or read book Index to Chairmen written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Pre budget 2006 and the Stern Review written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-19 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As part of the Committee's annual inquiry into the Treasury's Pre-Budget Report (PBR) and the progress made towards achieving environmental objectives with regards to its tax and spending policies, this publication examines the PBR's fiscal policy announcements in relation to the aviation, motoring, waste and energy sectors, focusing on the findings of the Stern Review of the economics of climate change (ISBN 9780102944204) published in October 2006. Amongst the 40 conclusions and recommendations made, the Committee notes that the Stern Review highlights the central problem involved in efforts to address the effects of global warning, that is the need to take action now before the more serious effects have begun to be felt in order to benefit future generations, a problem that will be both practically and politically challenging. The Committee urges the Government to use the Stern Report in order to promote a better informed public discussion of the science of climate change, so that we can use the limited window of opportunity presently available to prevent greenhouse gases growing to dangerous levels beyond which there are risks of major irreversible impacts, and recognising the Stern Review's accompanying argument that the sooner the world begins to cut its emissions, the easier and less costly mitigation will become.

Download or read book Trade development and environment written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-05-23 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Environmental Audit Committee established a sub-committee to explore concerns that Government policy on trade and development was not adequately incorporating the need for sustainable development and environmental protection. The series of inquiries have scrutinised DFID, the WTO and UK trade policy, the Government's response to the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. This is the final inquiry and it looks at the role of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in delivering international environmental objectives. Although it is not often the lead department it has a role in building international support for policy objectives and it also has direct responsibility, with DFID, towards the environment in UK Overseas Territories. The report looks at: FCO policy; FCO capacity on the environment; international environment strategy; setting an example; UK Overseas Territories.

Download or read book The structure of government and the challenge of climate change written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-29 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee's report finds that, over the past decade, the Government has failed to rise fully to the domestic challenge of climate change, and its likely failure to reach its domestic target on reducing carbon dioxide emissions will have a damaging impact on the UK's international leadership role in reaching a post-Kyoto agreement. Although the Government has introduced some new arrangements for co-ordinating climate change policy more effectively across Whitehall, the scale of the challenge and the complexity involved in radically restructuring the economy to bring about the needed emission reduction targets requires further changes. There is a need for a strategic review of Government action to ensure that the leadership and responsibility for the development and delivery of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies is clear, as well as a new long-term policy framework to ensure that policies introduced today do not undermine our ability to reduce emissions in the future. The Committee also recommends that a new and authoritative body be established within the Cabinet Office to drive forward policy and to diminish the potential for a conflict of objectives between departments.

Download or read book Pre budget 2005 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee reports on the progress made by the Treasury in placing environmental objectives at the heart of its fiscal policies. This year's pre-Budget report (Cm. 6701, December 2005, ISBN 0101670125) is found to be inadequate, especially in the context of UK CO2 emissions actually increasing once more. No significant new measures were announced, and the Committee sees a continued slowing down of the Treasury's momentum in turning rhetoric into action. It believes the Treasury should redefine Air Passenger Duty (APD) as an environmental tax and that APD rates should more accurately reflect the carbon emissions of the flights to which they apply. Charging APD on flights rather than passengers could also act as an incentive to more efficient use of aviation fuel. The Committee also recommends action on aviation fuel duty, biofuels, car energy efficiency, steps to wean the economy off over-reliance on oil, stamp duty and council tax reductions for homes built or refurbished to high environmental standards. Each pre-Budget report should include figures on total revenue from the climate change levy, aggregates levy, and landfill tax. Although the Treasury accepts the principle of increasing taxes on "bads" rather than "goods" its reluctance for bold reform of the tax system mystifies the Committee. A Green tax Commission should be reconsidered, to develop a proper communications strategy to sell the environmental programme to the public. The Committee exhorts the Government to make moves on the climate change problem, as waiting for universal agreement is a recipe for stasis. Finally, the Committee regrets the Treasury's decision to abolish the Operating and Financial Review required from large companies, in that it appears to view sustainable reporting as an optional extra. It hopes that the proposed new business reviews will continue to require some form of social and environmental disclosure from companies.

Download or read book Beyond Stern written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is about how the Government: sets targets for reductions in UK green house gases; assess progress towards these targets by forecasting the likely levels of future emissions; choose policy instruments to deliver the requisite cuts in emissions; and revises its package of policies in the light of experience. It is two main parts, the first looks at the Climate Change Programme Review, whilst the second examines the proposed Climate Change Bill. The Climate Change Programme Review revealed a number of weaknesses in the UK climate change policy as it became apparent that the target of a 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2010 would be missed. Revisions to the projection of emissions had not been done frequently enough, so by the time Ministers knew there were problems it was too late to introduce new measures. The programme is however likely to be rescued, somewhat, by Phase II of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which promises to deliver some real savings. The draft Climate Change Bill, alongside other developments such as the creation of the Office of Climate Change and requirements of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006, are broadly well designed and a far-reaching responses to these issues.

Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue written by Stationery Office (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 804 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue 2002 written by Stationery Office and published by . This book was released on 2003-11-04 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stationery Office annual Catalogue 2002

Download or read book Environmental Labelling written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report (HC 243, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215529220) the Environmental Audit Committee calls for a sector-based universal labelling scheme comparable to those emerging for food products. The Committee says the Government should be prepared to legislate for such a scheme if necessary. The Committee found greenwash - the use of insubstantial or meaningless claims to promote a product - to be a growing problem and that the Government has a role in policing ’green' labels. Commenting on the report, Colin Challen MP, Chairman of the Environmental Information Sub-Committee, said: "The Government has to act to deal with the problem of greenwash. Clear labels are needed to help consumers make informed choices but for consumers to have confidence in them, environmental labels must be backed up by independent monitoring that is fully verified." Further, that "The proliferation of labels means we urgently need a universal scheme to help consumers discriminate between products on the basis of environmental factors. A robust labelling regime would also change the way many businesses behave and help drive up environmental standards across whole sectors of the economy." The Committee calls for more resources to be put into environmental labelling, including efforts to raise public awareness. It also wants more information to be made available on the standards and processes that underpin any label, with the Government setting clear standards and guidelines on the content and presentation of such information. In addition, the Committee emphasises that the Government should encourage carbon labelling on all products as part of a universal sector-based environmental labelling scheme.

Download or read book Reaching an International Agreement on Climate Change written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-07-08 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The agreement of the Bali roadmap charted a course for negotiations on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. But there remain uncertainties about the pace and eventual outcome of the negotiations. A post-2012 agreement will only be a success if it is guided by the science, which warns that developed countries must reduce emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020 and 80-95 per cent by 2050. These figures only translate to a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, and the international community should aspire to even greater reductions. Most developing countries are not required to reduce emissions, but will need to commit to certain actions that will limit the growth of and eventually stabilise their emissions. The Committee believes that the targets for developed countries and commitment to actions by developing countries are the minimum that the UK and EU should accept in the negotiations. Diplomacy will be key in helping to reach agreement on the effort required. The Government will have to work closely with developing countries to explore the actions that they might be willing to commit to. The post-2012 agreement can be more flexible and creative than its predecessor in responding to the different needs of different countries. It is clear that substantial developed country financing will be required in order to shift developing countries onto a low-carbon path and also to encourage them to agree to mitigation actions.

Download or read book Reducing C02 and other emissions from shipping written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emission of greenhouse gases from shipping is a serious problem for international climate change policy and they cannot be allowed to grow uncontrolled. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has estimated that international shipping was responsible for annual emissions of around 843 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) in 2007, or around 3 per cent of total man-made carbon emissions. This report follows up an earlier inquiry (Reducing carbon emissions from transport, HC 981-I, 9th report of session 2005-06, ISBN 9780215030412)and examines what efforts the Government is making in three main respects: (a) negotiations to tackle shipping emissions at an international level (within the IMO, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the EU); (b) measures by which the UK is to take into account its share of international shipping emissions in domestic carbon budgets (through the Climate Change Act 2008); and (c) support in the UK for operational improvements and technological R&D aimed at reducing emissions from shipping. Very little progress has been made at the international level. A lack of urgency shown by industrialised nations and blocking actions by developing economies share the blame. The Government admits that the current calculation of the UK's share of international shipping emissions is an underestimate and should consult on how to improve the methodology it uses to calculate the UK's share of international shipping emissions. Government support for research and development should focus on technologies that can be retrofitted to existing ships, and offer a genuine alternative to fossil fuels, such as hydrogen fuel cells. There should be drastic acceleration of R&D into low- and zero-carbon propulsion systems.

Download or read book The role of carbon markets in preventing dangerous climate change written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-08 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emissions trading is central to the Government's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. This inquiry examines the prospects for a global carbon market and the implications of this for further development of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). It reviews the impact and future prospects for the EU ETS in meeting the Government's twin objectives of reducing emissions at lowest cost and setting a carbon price that delivers investment in low-carbon technologies. The EU ETS has emissions caps set too high to force emitters to make the often costly investment decisions which would reduce emissions. The recession has only served to loosen what little constraint the cap provided. The carbon price has been too low to encourage the necessary investment in low-carbon processes and infrastructure. The cap mechanism therefore needs to be significantly tightened. This should be supported by cancelling 'new entrant reserve' allowances and auctioning as many allowances as possible, rather than giving them away for free (with the revenues possibly hypothecated to climate change measures). The Government should explore the possible use of a carbon tax. It should also encourage more use of allowance auctions with reserve prices, more use of incentives for low-carbon power generation and emissions performance standards for electricity generation. The emphasis should also be on harmonising the approach internationally, and on extending effective emissions trading systems. The Committee lists 19 conclusions and recommendations.

Download or read book The impact of UK overseas aid on environmental protection and climate change adaptation and mitigation written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-06-29 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Environmental Audit Committee states that the UK should only provide funding for multilateral institutions with strong environmental credentials. The current scale of the World Bank's lending to fossil fuel powered energy generation is unacceptable and the Committee urges the Government to be prepared to vote against new World Bank funding for high emissions coal-fired power stations. The profile of climate change has increased hugely but there is far less awareness of the importance of protecting biodiversity and ecosystems. The Committee believes that the Department for International Development (DFID) needs to publish a clear strategy on its approach to environmental issues to ensure that it gives them sufficient priority in its programmes and expenditure. Every effort must be made to help emerging economies leap-frog fossil fuels and fuel their growth with clean energy instead. High levels of consumption in the UK increases demand on production in poor countries which leads to degradation of their natural resources. The report calls on the UK Government to ensure that economic activity in Britain does not cancel out, or even reverse, the positive impact that UK aid is having overseas.