The Climate Change Bill
The Climate Change Bill, which goes through Parliament today, is a world first. The Bill will make the UK the first country to have a legally binding long term framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. Many other countries are now looking at whether they should follow our lead and adopt a similar bill.
When the Bill was initially drafted the emissions cuts target was set at 60%. However, in view of the ever-improving science in this area, and following extensive discussions with experts and members of the public, as well as the results of the independent Commission on Climate Change, the Government has moved to commit the UK to aiming even higher. The target now enshrined in legislation, for the first time anywhere in the world, is for an 80% cut by 2050.
Other measures in the Bill include a commitment to reaching international agreement on a framework for including aviation and shipping in these targets; mandatory emissions publishing by corporations from 2012; and the imposition of emissions reduction targets on electricity generators.
The credit crunch has meant that at the moment people are concerned about their jobs, their homes, and their standard of living. In preparing our national economy for financial change we can also shape it to meet environmental challenges. There is great potential for employment within the renewable energy technology sector, and I am working to make sure that is true on Tyneside as much as anywhere else in the country.
The Climate Change Bill is a good step in the right direction. Together with recent developments in energy market policy, further measures to be announced on feed-in tariffs, and the recent creation of the country’s first-ever Department for Energy and Climate Change, we are working towards a truly sustainable and world leading energy policy.