The British Climate Change Act

A critical evaluation and proposed alternative approach

Dados Bibliográficos

ID15548635
AutoresRoger A Pielke (0000-0002-9617-8764, University of Colorado Boulder, autor correspondente), Roger A Pielke Jr
Ano2009
Volume4
Fascículo2
Páginas024010-024010
Data de publicação2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
EditoraIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/4/2/024010
OpenAlexW2122396526
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências 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