Sustainability and policy - Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects - page 489

Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000), which is not to be confused with
the 1994 document of the same title. It affirmed the UK's obligation under the Kyoto
Protocol (unlike the USA), stating the UK's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-12, and stating its 'domestic goal'
of a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide by 2010. The means by which this was to be
achieved included a continued move to gas-fired power stations ('subject to cost'),
increased contribution from renewable energy and a target to double combined-heat-
and-power stations. (Such stations have a lower efficiency of electricity production
but as waste heat is used to warm buildings the overall energy efficiency from fuel
consumption to total energy - electricity and heat - delivered is greater.) It also
formalised the UK commitment to the Kyoto measures of Joint Implementation (JI)
and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Climate-related criticisms of the
new UK Programme included the cost restrictions on renewable energy and that it
side-stepped the question of replacing existing UK nuclear plants approaching the
end of their generating life. Nonetheless, its aspirations to address greenhouse gas
emissions were commendable.
In 2003 the same government published the UK's first energy White Paper for over
two decades. The Energy White Paper: Our Energy Future - Creating a Low Carbon
Economy was published under the auspices primarily of the Department of Trade
and Industry, and the Department for Transport and Department of Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (2003). It was one of a number of Government and
Parliamentary documents that used the phrase 'low-carbon economy'. Technically
this was misleading as there was still an emphasis on switching from coal to gas
(which contains carbon) and encouraging biofuels (which also contain carbon).
The 2003 Energy White Paper was the first energy White Paper to have as one of its
core themes climate change concerns. The other core themes were energy diversity
(for security purposes), maintaining a competitive energy market and tackling energy
poverty (to prevent the poor from being unable to afford energy). Laudably - from a
climate change policy perspective - it recommended, above and beyond its existing
Kyoto and domestic goals, that the UK should reduce carbon dioxide emissions from
the current (2003) levels by 60% by 2050. It also affirmed commitment to the policy
goals of Climate Change: The UK Programme (2000) regarding renewable energy
and combined-heat-and-power stations. However, on cost grounds it did not commit
to any nuclear build, although it did 'keep the option open'. Another problem area
identified by the White Paper was that of transport, especially road transport, and the
dominance of the use of cars for personal transport. It said that the solutions lay with
hydrogen and biofuels.
The White Paper's greenhouse-emission aspirations were lauded, although a num-
ber of commentators and policy analysts were not so confident that the paper had
identified the means to deliver these. Climate policy-related criticisms included that
it side-stepped the question of nuclear build (given the forecast decline in UK nuclear
power which meant that a modest increase in renewable energy offset nuclear as a
non-fossil carbon fuel rather than fossil fuel), and that the road-transport goals could
not be fulfilled by domestic biofuel production (where even optimistic forecasts were
a power of 10 too low for required levels) and hydrogen (which is an energy vector and
not a fuel, as it takes energy to make the hydrogen in the first place). Such criticisms