Government 'needs to do more to tackle climate change'

The government needs to take further action if it hopes to prevent climate change, it has been suggested.

National co-ordinator for the Campaign against Climate Change Phil Thornhill suggested that the UK will not meet its 2020 targets unless it develops a better strategy to limit carbon emissions.

He said: "The overall situation looks like climate change is happening in [the] world around us much quicker then we're getting together to deal with it."

Yesterday (June 30th), the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) revealed that while greenhouse gas levels dropped by 8.6 per cent over the last year, this is the result of a reduction in economic activity caused by the recession and not due to methods to limit carbon emissions.

It advised the government to pursue incentives to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, develop green cars and introduce new policies for the agriculture sector in order to achieve climate change goals.

The CCC previously stated that in order to meet 2050 targets, the government has to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 34 per cent over the next ten years.

Posted by Lauren Steadman