Policy gaps in the government's carbon budgets are a breach of the Climate Change Act (CCA) and a legal failure, according to a new report.
Environmental law group ClientEarth claims successive governments have persistently failed to plan to meet future carbon budgets or to put in place the policies needed to drive a reduction in underlying emissions.
The report, Mind the Gap – Reviving the CCA, claims the government is in breach of its legal duty under the CCA for failing to address policy gaps in achieving the fourth carbon budget. It also alleges that ministers have been aware of the problem for several years.
ClientEarth lawyer Jonathan Church said: ‘Government lauds the CCA in public, but its actions don’t match its words. Our carbon budgets are not just wallpaper. They must inform policy decisions across government today, tomorrow and in the future.’
The CCA requires government to deliver five legally binding carbon budgets to support the delivery of at least an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 against 1990 levels. Each budget covers a five-year period between 2008 and 2032 and the independent Committee on Climate Change advises the government on the scale of the reduction required. The first budget, covering 2008–12, was met, and the next two budgets, up to 2022 are also likely to be achieved because of an increase in renewable energy capacity and the phasing out coal-fired power stations.
Problems over the fourth carbon budget, which runs from 2023–27, were noted by Decc (now part of BIES) in 2015. It projected a shortfall against the budget of around 54 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e). Earlier this year, former energy secretary, Amber Rudd, promised a new emissions reduction plan in 2016, to deal with the deficit.
ClientEarth said it welcomed the announcement of new plan, but said the government’s approach to implementing the CCA needed to be reset. ‘A policy and reporting reset is essential if we are to hit emissions targets. We can’t afford to drift for the next five years – as we have done for the last five years – without proper climate policies and progress,’ said Church.
In its 2016 progress report, the Committee on Climate Change Committee said UK emissions were currently 38% below 1990 level but that current policies were insufficient to meet the requirements of the fourth and fifth carbon budgets.
