Scorecard Summary:
Fulfillment of Rio Conference Commitment-Green
Current Government Position on Climate Change- Yellow
Per Capita Emissions - Yellow ( 9.79metric tons per person in 1992)
National CO2 Emissions- Yellow: (566 million metric tons in 1992)

OVERALL SSESSMENT:
Active to get strong international agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but needs to do much more domestically.

NATIONAL CLIMATE PROTECTION GOAL:
The Government has agreed to return emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. Further, the Government advocates an international target of 5-10 percent reductions on 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2010. For CO2 a reduction of 4-8 percent below 1990 levels is expected by 2000.

SPECIFIC FEATURES:
Emission reductions in the UK have been largely achieved as consequence of liberalization, deregulation and privatization in the energy sector which has seen gas become an increasing competitor to coal for electricity generation: combined cycle gas turbines are expected to provide 50 percent more power than originally anticipated by 2000. Furthermore nuclear energy output has increased. These moves have offset the failures of many of the measures in the original climate change strategy. Overall, the UK has relatively high CO2 emissions per unit of GDP (.61t CO2/US$1000 in 1992).

NEGATIVE FEATURES:
The Government has made it clear that it cannot accept an EU-wide CO2/ energy tax as proposed by the EC. Privatization and deregulation have impeded the implementation of policy measures to mitigate greenhouse gas reductions and the new framework reduces the scope for government driven energy efficiency and demand-side management programs. An important part of the Government's program to promote the efficient use of energy was to be spear- headed by the Energy Savings Trust which was established in 1992 to develop and manage energy efficiency programs. But the levy on gas and electricity consumers' bills which was to be levied, was rejected by the gas industry regulator on the grounds that it was an unfair tax on consumers. The promotion of least cost planning, or 'Negawatt' schemes , in the power sector is very difficult to envisage in current structures. The National Road Traffic Forecasts show traffic continuing to rise at a steady rate through to the end of current projections and current measures are insufficient to curb growth. Proposals to levy value-added tax on domestic fuel and power were perceived as regressive and the introduction of high rate of tax was rejected by the Parliament.

POSITIVE ASPECTS:
The UK was one of the first to propose a reduction target for the post 2000 era in the climate negotiations and continues to promote a flat rate rather than a differentiated target. The Government has a commitment to increase road fuel duties by 5 ercent in real terms per year as the primary measure to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption in the transport sector. The UK is working to establish 1500 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2000. Renewable energy continues to benefit from the fossil fuel levy which was originally introduced to support nuclear power. This levy is aiming to create an initial market for-electricity producing technologies close to competitiveness. It has had success with some technologies such as wind power, but serious barriers still remain.

Sources: Climate Change: the UK Program: Progress Report on Carbon Dioxide Emissions,1995. Energy Policies of IEA Countries. 1994 and 1996 Reviews, IEA,OECD,194,1996.