The Financial Times reports:
The coalition is heading for a bitter new row over green energy as senior Tories seek to unpick carbon targets which stand in the way of Britain building more than 40 gas-fired power stations.
Ministers struck an agreement in 2011 to reduce emissions by half by the mid-2020s, compared with 1990 levels, as part of Britain’s attempt to cut its share of global warming.
But George Osborne, chancellor, secured a potential opt-out if a December 2013 review by the Climate Change Committee, the statutory body which advises the government on emissions, proved that Britain was moving faster than the rest of the EU.
The Engineering Employers’ Federation has been urging the chancellor to kill off the carbon targets, saying the review will be a “real test” for the government.
“The other EU states haven’t stepped up to the mark and we believe that means the rip cord needs to be pulled on these targets,” said Gareth Stace, head of climate at the EEF. “If we go ahead we will be locked into tougher targets than the other members states.”
Sounds like the CO2 goals were set before the UK’s people found out they were sitting on a whole big bubble of methane. Methane that would support jobs, manufacturing, and comfort for their elderly.
Cutting CO2 will have the same effect on the climate that doubling CO2 output would have — effectively zero. Human production of CO2 and methane are climate forcings too small to measure among the larger forcings.
Please quit linking to web sites that demand registration.
Just totally ignore them and they may get the message.