WWF calls for Government action on carbon emissions
The World Wildlife Fund UK has launched a campaign calling on the Government to set tougher carbon emission cuts. In an open letter published today in national newspapers, the charity says cuts set out in the UK Climate Change Bill are based on out-of-date science.
The letter, which appears in The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, states that the latest science “clearly shows the need for the UK to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050″. It will also appear in tomorrow’s Financial Times.
The UK Climate Change Bill is proposing a reduction of only 60 per cent, a target based on a report from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) from 2002. The WWF-UK says that the development in climate change science shows this target is now insufficient.
The open letter is signed by some of Britain’s leading environmentalists: Sir John Lawton, chair of the RCEP and president of the British Ecological Society; his predecessor at the RCEP, Sir Tom Blundell; Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Met Office; and Professor Norman Myers, member of the US National Academy of Science.