Government's Planned Emissions Cuts Don't Go Far Enough, Warns WWF

The WWF has warned that the Government's draft climate change bill does not go far enough in its plans to cut the UK's CO2 emissions.

While the bill takes some important steps toward reducing the UK's CO2 emissions, the WWF said it "still needs to be improved if it is to really deliver results".

The wildlife agency welcomed the Climate Change Act, which will make the UK the first country to budget and manage its own emissions by statute, and also the decision by EU heads of state to aim for a 30 per cent cut in Europe's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

However, the proposed target of a 60 per cent reduction in emissions on 1990 levels by 2050 does not go far enough, WWF said, and should be revised upwards to 75 per cent if the UK is to make a "fair contribution to avoid the worst impacts of climate change". WWF also said it felt strongly that the bill should be revised to include emissions from international shipping and aviation which do not currently feature in its provisions.

Earlier in the week, Rob Frost of Share Jesus International, warned that climate change was a serious threat to the world's poor. "Today, the most threatened creatures on earth are not the whales or the pandas but the poor.

"The earth can no longer support the kind of consumerism which our affluent lifestyle demands. We simply consume too much, waste too much and pollute too much."

Further recommendations from WWF included shortening the proposed five year budget periods to three years to reach targets, which would ensure that they fell inside a single parliament, and did not "provide opportunities for administrations to blame their predecessors for failures to adequately reduce emissions". WWF said it was "vital" to have tough rules on annual reporting against progress, and to set "meaningful" limits on the UK's use of imported emission credits.

Paul King, Director of Campaigns for WWF-UK, said: "The draft bill deserves credit because it is the first of its kind, but in its current form it falls short of delivering the tough measures needed to bring about the sort of changes we need to protect the planet."

"It also provides too many get-out clauses - five year budget periods will leave far too much scope for buck-passing between different governments and ministers, while excluding aviation and shipping emissions is little short of cheating. Hopefully these issues can be resolved during consultation on the bill."