World’s First Government Carbon Budget Announced By UK Chancellor

Posted on 22. Apr, 2009 by Ross in Government Policy, United Kingdom

Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling MP, made history by releasing the details of a legally-binding greenhouse gas budget to work in tandem with the country’s conventional financial budget. The Budget statement contained budgets for carbon dioxide emissions alongside projections for taxation and spending.

The carbon budgets are expected to run across five-year periods until at least 2020, by which time the UK is intending to have cut emissions by 34% from 1990 levels. The targets - more ambitious than many of the UK’s western counterparts - are part of a long-term commitment to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, and the 2020 target is considered to be in line with meeting this goal.