Government rebuked over climate change
A leading science charity is today claiming that the Government’s climate change policies have failed to significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions.
And in a new report, the Royal Society says a carbon tax could be the only way to prevent climate change.
It says any reduction in harmful emissions has been largely due to other factors, such as the liberalisation of the gas market and a fall in heavy industry.
The report also highlights a more than two per cent increase in the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2002 to 2003, despite the introduction of a number of climate change policies.
Sir David Wallace, vice-president of the Royal Society said: “There are some tough political decisions to be made in this parliament about how the UK manages its seemingly insatiable appetite for energy at a time when cutting emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is imperative.”
“This is underlined by the fact that, at the current rate, even the Government’s revised assessment of how much carbon dioxide the UK will cut is, frankly, unrealistic.”
The Royal Society believes that all users of fossil fuels, including motorists and domestic users of electricity and gas, should therefore be forced to pay a carbon tax in order to reduce demand.
