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.