Isra-Mart srl:Committee on Climate Change advises UK to meet carbon budget without offsets

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The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has today urged the government to aim to meet its second carbon budget through domestic actions alone and not through the use of offset credits.

The CCC today wrote to energy secretary Chris Huhne advising a limit on offset credits for the second carbon budget which runs from 2013 to 2017. The intervention comes ahead of the government finalising the rules governing its upcoming carbon budgets, decisions on which have to be made by June this year at the latest.

The committee said areas of the UK economy not covered by the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) should not require any offset credits to outperform the currently legislated budget and even achieve the more ambitious "intended budget", which would be implemented if governments signed a global deal to reduce emissions.

It added that firms operating in the EU ETS could use carbon offset credits up to the limit allowed in the EU cap-and-trade scheme, provided it does not undermine the wider carbon price.

David Kennedy, chief executive of the CCC, said the impacts of the recession and the requirement to meet an ambitious fourth budget period from 2022 make a strong case for the government to comply with earlier budgets without buying in offsets from overseas.

"It is possible to meet these budgets at low cost and through domestic action alone," he said. "Reducing our own emissions now is necessary if we are to be on track to the deep domestic cuts required through the 2020s, and to developing new green industries including energy efficiency and renewable energy."

Among the key measures required in the second budget, the CCC advised an increase by four percentage points in the proportion of renewable heat, the addition of at least 620,000 new electric cars, and a 16 per cent reduction in the level of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional new cars.

Additionally, it says that three nuclear power plants should start construction, at least two carbon capture storage demonstration plants should begin operating, and 10GW of new wind capacity should come online.

In the letter, the committee also reiterated its recommendation that the second carbon budget, as well as the 2018-2022 budget, should be tightened to reflect appropriate policy ambition along with the emissions impacts of the recession.

The government now has until June to respond to the recommendations.

However, Friends of the Earth and other green NGOs are pushing the coalition to continue the convention established by the last government, whereby announcements about the carbon budget are made as part of the financial budget. As such, they are calling on the government to confirm tomorrow that it will sign up to the targets recommended by the CCC for all three upcoming budget periods.

"When in opposition, both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems said governments should be led by the independent advice of the climate change committee," Friends of the Earth's Martyn Williams told BusinessGreen. "Now it is time for the government to honour that pledge and adopt the recommendations for the fourth carbon budget."