The British Climate Change Act

A critical evaluation and proposed alternative approach

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15548635
AutoresRoger A Pielke (0000-0002-9617-8764, University of Colorado Boulder, autor de correspondencia), Roger A Pielke Jr
Año2009
Volumen4
Número2
Páginas024010-024010
Fecha de publicación2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
EditorialIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/4/2/024010
OpenAlexW2122396526
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas5

This paper evaluates the United Kingdom's Climate Change Act of 2008 in terms of the implied rates of decarbonization of the UK economy for a short-term and a long-term target established in law. The paper uses the Kaya identity to structure the evaluation, employing both a bottom up approach (based on projections of future UK population, economic growth, and technology) and a top down approach (deriving implied rates of decarbonization consistent with the targets and various rates of projected economic growth). Both approaches indicate that the UK economy would have to achieve annual rates of decarbonization in excess of 4 or 5%. To place these numbers in context, the UK would have to achieve the 2006 carbon efficiency of France by about 2015, a level of effort comparable to the building of about 30 new nuclear power plants, displacing an equivalent amount of fossil energy. The paper argues that the magnitude of the task implied by the UK Climate Change Act strongly suggests that it is on course to fail, and discusses implications

Climate change · Climatology · Context (archaeology · Economics · Fossil fuel · Geography · Greenhouse gas · Natural resource economics · Population · Population growth · Sociology · Term (time · Climate Change Policy and Economics · demographic modeling and climate adaptation · Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies · Engineering · Environmental Science · Geology