Committee on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) first assessment of climate change in 1990 underlined the seriousness of the climate change threat. Following on from its publication, and the 1992 UN Earth Summit, an agreement called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed by 166 nations. 

The UNFCCC was a landmark agreement in recognising the seriousness of climate change; however, binding emissions reduction targets were not included within it. Since then, and under the auspices of the UNFCCC, national governments have been negotiating over the long term global goal for emissions reduction. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted 1997, sets binding targets for a number of industrialised countries and the EU – an average 5% reduction in GHG emissions, against 1990 levels, for the 5 year period 2008-2012.

Going beyond Kyoto, the aim is to secure an agreement for the post-2012 period with the Copenhagen Accord a first step in this process.

The EU has already agreed that it will reduce its emissions by 20% on 1990 levels by 2020. If other countries agree to make a comparable contribution, the EU is willing to commit to a reduction of 30%.  Agreement on how the 20% emissions reduction will be shared between individual EU member states was reached in December 2008.

The G8 agreed in July 2008 a target to cut global emissions by 50% in 2050. Building on this, in July 2009 the G8 agreed an objective to limit temperature change to 2°C, and that developed countries should cut emissions by 80% in 2050 as an appropriate contribution to the 50% global cut.

The new Government  has committed to ‘work towards an ambitious global climate deal that will limit emissions and explore the creation of new international sources of funding for the purpose of climate change adaptation and mitigation’. An ambitious global deal would need to be based on emissions peaking before 2020 with a global emissions cut of 50% in 2050 across all Kyoto gases and all sectors including international aviation and shipping. 

The previous Government also accepted the Committee’s recommendation that the UK should cut emissions by at least 80% in 2050 as the basis for its position that all developed countries should achieve a similar target.