Britain to rule on 2020 climate target mid-2009
Date: 12-Dec-08
Country: POLAND
Author: Gerard Wynn
POZNAN - Britain's energy and climate minister Ed Miliband Thursday would not rule out committing the UK to more ambitious 2020 climate targets, on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Poland.
The government will respond next summer to recommendations including forcing mandatory cuts in carbon emissions from coal plants and more ambitious national 2020 emissions goals.
Britain's chief climate change adviser, Adair Turner, made the recommendations earlier this month.
"We'll be responding in the middle of next year to all the conclusions of the independent climate change committee," Miliband told Reuters, and added -- "We'll obviously be ... responding to that," on the 2020 goal.
The committee on climate change last week urged that Britain cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 34 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. That target should rise to 42 percent if a global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol were reached, it said.
Britain recently signed into law a target of cutting carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, under its climate change bill.
Miliband was speaking on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Poznan, Poland, where about 100 environment ministers worked on details of a new treaty to fight global warming, replacing Kyoto, meant to be agreed by the end of next year.
In Brussels, EU leaders met to try and clinch agreement on a climate and energy package despite demands for concessions, especially from Italy.
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleaded in Poznan on Thursday for leadership in the fight against climate change. Miliband said he was confident of a deal in Brussels by the end of Friday.
"Europe does face a moment of truth in relation to Poznan and in relation to the wider world - which is are we going to hold to our climate change commitments, in particular the 20 percent EU target," he said, referring to a key goal in the climate package to slash greenhouse gases by a fifth by 2020.
