UKCS Contribution to Delivering UK Environmental Targets

UK energy policy & Kyoto targets

Greenhouse Gas Reduction: The UK is committed under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% by 2008-12 compared with emissions in 1990. The UK has set its own additional target to reduce CO₂ emissions by 20% between 1990 and 2010. It is further seeking to reduce CO₂ emissions by 60% between 2000 and 2050, with significant progress made by 2020. The Climate Change Programme¹, the Renewables Obligation², the UK and EU emissions’ trading schemes are seen as key means to achieve those objectives.

Electricity Supply: The Government has also set itself the objective of providing 10% of electricity supply from renewable sources by 2010, rising to 20% by 2020³, “as long as the cost to the customer is acceptable” and to have 10 GWe of good quality Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installed by 2010.

Figure 45: Emissions of Greenhouse Gases – United Kingdom

As Figure 45 shows, the UK is already meeting the Kyoto target of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite an increase in energy demand of 10% since 1990, CO₂ emissions have also been declining – in recent years they were 4%-8% below the 1990 level – and are projected to drop further. New gas fired power stations emit around half the carbon of conventional coal fired stations and are much more thermally efficient. The reduction in emissions has been substantially assisted by the switch from coal and oil to gas which now provides just over 40% of total power generation.

Footnotes
1 Published in 2000, the Climate Change Programme delineates the strategies for cutting emissions and meeting both the Kyoto and the UK targets.
2 The Renewables Obligation, which was introduced in April 2002, requires that power suppliers obtain a specified proportion of the electricity from renewable energy sources.
3 The current share for renewables (including hydro) is 3% of the total electricity generated.