Sustainability and policy - Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects - page 492

of science), even though the document appeared to recognise the need for science to
underpin sustainability. The consultation document itself said that the proposed code
was to include the need for homes to have a lifetime in excess of 60 years. Yet the
proposed code was that the homes considered to be most sustainable would be heated
by natural gas. Another concern from the greenhouse perspective was that the lowest
level of the proposed code was the same as the then existing legal energy-conserving
requirements. In short, builders, should they wish, needed not to do anything more
than they had been doing already in terms of energy efficiency.
The reason for citing this policy document is that it is illustrative of one of the
main reasons why successive UK governments since 1990 have had difficulty in
meeting climate-policy goals. The second document actually recognised this difficulty
and it was the Governments' Climate Change: The UK Programme (Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2006; this was the successor to the Climate
Change: The UK Programme 2000 and 1994 policy documents). Although some
of the UK Government's 2006 policy documents had yet to be published the 2006
UK Programme did predict some of their content. For example, it stated that the
then forthcoming code for sustainable homes would raise carbon standards above
the mandatory level. Its forecast for UK electricity generation depicted a constant
contribution from nuclear power between 2000 and 2020 that clearly suggests that
policy-makers were actively considering building new nuclear reactors to replace
old ones scheduled to be decommissioned. A number of policy analysts consider
that the reason for The UK Programme 2006 document anticipating forthcoming
carbon-saving measures was because The UK Programme 2006 itself predicted that
the Government's previous goal to reduce by 2010 carbon dioxide emissions by 20%
(over the 1990 base level) would not be achieved: instead, a new forecast of a 15-18%
reduction was given. Nonetheless, the Government remained guardedly optimistic
that its original long-term aspirations were still in theory achievable. In 2007 the UK
Government produced another policy White Paper, Meeting the Energy Challenge:
A White Paper on Energy from the Department of Trade and Industry (2007; the
government department then responsible for energy). It sought to address the twin
problems of climate change and energy security and, as with the 2003 energy White
Paper, without causing fuel poverty. It proposed that the UK foster an international
framework to tackle climate change and provide legally binding carbon dioxides
targets. These last would be delivered by increased use of renewables, improved
efficiency of energy production and use, and carbon capture and storage.
The UK created a new government department in 2008 to tackle the twin issues
of climate change and energy with the Department of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC). As part of this reform the government also created an independent Com-
mittee on Climate Change that was to set legally binding emission reduction targets
and advise on other climate change policy concerns. One of its first decisions was
that the UK should aim to cut its 1990-level emissions by 80% by 2050. In 2009 the
Government published a White Paper called The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan via
the Office of Public Sector Information (2009) in an attempt to identify the policies
needed for this 80% cut. However, in 2010 the Committee on Climate Change warned
that a step change in reducing UK emissions was still required as reductions in 2009
were largely due to the effects of the 2008/9 global financial recession.