At the end of November last year, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) provided its advice to the Government on the level of the 5th carbon budget (the limit on UK greenhouse gas emissions over the 5 years 2028-32). The Paris Agreement, in December, has greater long-term global ambition than current UK targets assume – in particular, it aims to hold the increase in global temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C and to reach net zero global emissions of greenhouse gases in the second half of the century. What are the implications for UK targets and emission reduction measures? In follow-up advice to the Government, the CCC has repeated its recommendation that the fifth carbon budget be legislated at the level advised in November, but noted that a tighter budget may be needed in future. In this presentation, Adrian Gault, Chief Economist at the CCC, considered the implications of Paris, and explains the basis of CCC advice in relation to the level of the 5th carbon budget, with implications for UK policy.
Adrian Gault, Chief Economist, The Committee on Climate Change
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