Committee calls for 80% carbon cut

The Committee on Climate Change has called for a cut of more than a third in greenhouse gases compared with 1990 levels by 2020. The committee said there was a very strong case to adopt a tougher target of an 80 per cent cut against 1990 levels rather than a 60 per cent cut recommended in the 2003 Energy White Paper because evidence showed more radical action was needed. Nuclear, low carbon and renewable energy technologies should all be expanded the committee’s report said, and Lord Adair, chair of the committee added: ‘The reductions required can be achieved at a very low cost to out economy; the cost of not achieving the reductions will be far greater’.