The British Climate Change Act
A critical evaluation and proposed alternative approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15548635 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roger A Pielke (0000-0002-9617-8764, University of Colorado Boulder, corresponding author), Roger A Pielke Jr |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 024010-024010 |
| Publication date | 2009-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/4/2/024010 |
| OpenAlex | W2122396526 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 5 |
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
Using Twentieth-Century U.S. Weather Modification Policy to Gain Insight into Global Climate Remediation Governance Issues
Can national policy blockages accelerate the development of polycentric governance? Evidence from climate change policy in the United Kingdom
Academic Activism in the Face of Enclosure in the Digital University
Moral Offset’
An evaluation of the targets and timetables of proposed Australian emissions reduction policies
How does knowledge relate to political action
Unravelling the United Kingdom’s climate policy consensus
Formalization and separation
Carbon soundings
Mamizu climate policy
The Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix (GAM) — A new assessment tool for evaluating the level and nature of sustainability or unsustainability
The two limits debates
Taking stock of policy performance in Central and Eastern Europe
If at first you don’t succeed
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2017 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |