Enough hot air

The UK must cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by the middle of this century. That’s the recommendation of the committee on climate change, the expert body that advises the government on how Britain needs to respond to the challenge of global warming.

The stakes could not be higher. That 80 per cent figure is based on calculations of the size of effort the world has to make if we are to have a hope of limiting global warming to two degrees celcius. Any higher, and the risks of catastrophic climate change get uncomfortably large.

Meeting this target will be a truly unprecedented challenge. Every sector of the economy, every aspect of our lives in which we consume energy released from burning fossil fuels, needs to play its part.