EMEA News
UK Defers Carbon Budget Plans for Shipping
The United Kingdom's government will defer a decision on including aviation and shipping emissions in the nation's carbon budgets until 2016, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced Wednesday.
Edward Davey, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, said the nation would wait until there was more clarity about how the international community would approach the issue, after the European Commission temporarily suspended international aspects of a European Union trading scheme for the aviation industry last month.
"Given the uncertainty of what is happening at the EU and global level in managing aviation emissions, we think it sensible to defer our decision on the inclusion of aviation and shipping emissions in the UK's carbon budgets," Davey said.
The carbon budgets are part of the Climate Change Act, which calls for all economic sectors to contribute to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The new decision goes against a November recommendation by Tim Yeo, chairman of the UK's Energy and Climate Change Committee of MPs, who called for shipping and aviation to be included in the budgets.
Some lawmakers opposed the idea, noting that the industries' emissions are difficult to track because they generally occur outside national borders and arguing that demanding reductions from the shipping industry would raise the price of imported goods.
Before the DECC's announcement, A group of environmental non-government organisations (NGOs) called on the government to include the industries.
"Aviation and shipping emissions are a significant contributor to climate change - our share of this pollution must be included in UK carbon budgets," said Friends of the Earth's executive director Andy Atkins.
"Excluding planes and ships from UK climate targets would be like going on a calorie-controlled diet, but not counting cakes."
Among the groups calling for the industries' inclusions in the budgets were the World Wildlife Fund-UK, the Aviation Environment Federation, and AirportWatch.
