Minister: Government and Businesses Must Work Closely to Tackle Carbon Emissions (UK)

Drawing courtesy of The American Interest website

An effort to simplify the issues facing businesses cutting CO2 emissions was indicated by UK government economists, which increases the importance of considering the cost of carbon in policy decisions, said Environment Minister Phil Woolas.

Mr Woolas stated, “Last week in Bali, we set a clear agenda for negotiating a new global agreement to fight climate change. We must make the most cost-effective emissions cuts, and we must prove to the world that fighting climate change is compatible with economic growth.”

The Minister continued, “This (effort) shows once again that we’re serious about tackling emissions in the UK and that doing so doesn’t need to undermine competitiveness. It’s all about making sure that we get the biggest cuts in carbon dioxide possible for the money spent.”

Lastly, Minister Woolas closed saying “Working together, Government and businesses must show leadership in tackling emissions, without jeopardizing prosperity. In fact, growth brings innovation and resources - which can help us to tackle emissions.”

DEFRA is working on a new package of methods for cutting duplication and unduly complex bureaucracy, cost cutting, and making it easier for businesses to cut emissions. This effort responds to requests from businesses who want to cut emissions, but that find existing regulations complex and confusing.

This package of methods seeks to eliminate avoidable overlaps, simplify existing regulations, and ensure that the regulatory burden on the economy is kept to a minimum. Some of these methods will be of special benefit to small and medium enterprises, but the package as a whole is intended to simplify regulation for all businesses.

In the second paper, the UK government economists significantly raise the value attached to carbon emissions or the savings from all new policies and projects across the UK government. This paper brings the value of carbon used by the UK government decision-makers into line with the Stern Review - increasing the value by 17 percent for emissions in 2020, 32 percent in 2030; and 67 percent in 2050, as compared with previous values.

Wherever new policies or projects have a significant impact on emissions, Ministers are advised that these new carbon values will account for more of the carbon impact. That covers not only environmental measures, but applies across the UK government, which includes for example transport, construction and infrastructure projects. These new values will be an incentive to recommend lower-carbon options wherever they may be economically and socially justified.

Because of its better regulation agenda, DEFRA decided to review its three main climate change instruments - the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Climate Change Agreements, and the proposed Carbon Reduction Commitment.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/cc-instruments/index.htm.

The webpage, shown just above, lists options for further aligning domestic and EU policy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industry, including the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Climate Change Agreements and the proposed Carbon Reduction Commitment. The recommendations were developed with cross-departmental input, and have been broadly agreed across the UK government.

The UK government is seeking views on options in the document, including:

***Recommendations for reducing overlap;

***Methods for streamlining, monitoring, and reporting;

***Ways to share data better; and

***How to ensure all domestic policies add value to international ones.

Key issues that the UK government is, also, seeking views on include:

***Ensuring all domestic policies add value to international interventions;

***Removing overlap between policies such that the same emissions are not targeted multiple times;

***Methods for streamlining monitoring and reporting;

***Ways to better share data.;

***Improving consistency and coherence between various policy interventions; and

***Reducing the administrative burden of these policies on smaller businesses.

The larger value attached to carbon emissions and the rationale behind it have been prepared in a paper by DEFRA’s Economics Group. The paper: “The Social Cost of Carbon and the Shadow Price of Carbon: What They Are, and How to Use Them in Economic Appraisal in the UK.” is available at their webpage: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/research/carboncost/pdf/bac
kground.pdf

The paper has had an academic peer review, the results of which will be made public in the next couple of weeks.

Valuing Carbon:

The Shadow Price of Carbon (SPC) is the value that will be placed by the UK government on carbon impacts when evaluating policy options. The new framework will ensure that the carbon impacts of policies - whether negative or positive- will be taken into account systematically and consistently across the UK government.

The SPC is based on estimates of the damage caused by a metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and by other greenhouse gasses, through their impact on climate change. The new values for the SPC reflect estimates of these damages presented in the Stern review. The value increases over time, consistent with the increased damage caused by emissions at higher levels of atmospheric concentrations. The new values are higher than past estimates. In 2007, the SPC is £25 (as of today, USD $49.6) per metric ton of carbon dioxide. By 2050, the Shadow Price of Carbon will be some 67% higher than the previous figure used to value carbon emissions. Equivalent values will be used for other greenhouse gasses.

DEFRA will review the SPC value over the coming year, primarily taking into account additional information on the costs of reducing carbon emissions. To review the paper in which the new carbon value (with background information) is listed, please visit the webpage: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/research/carboncost/index.htm

DEFRA’s aim is sustainable development

(Ed.: This is a tremendous example of how a people can work together to solve a dilemma facing the entire country’s population…er…life on this planet! You know, people and governments CAN work together. As much as I respect the U.S. Presidential office, I wish the Texan in the Oval Office, which for our visitors living outside of the U.S. is in the White House, would read the writing on the wall and join or perhaps lead the world community to actively and with dedication of purpose work aggressively to fight the potentially terrible consequences of the Global Warming/Climate Change challenge before all of us. He should use the remainder of his term to foster a firm alliance of between the ‘Big Oil’ interests, big business interests, environmentalists, and the scientific-environmentalist
community to solve the energy-pollution problem. He should assemble the best minds to stimulate and encourage the fledgling renewable/sustainable energy industry and weld them together into an action oriented team that will live on beyond the President’s term of office. In other words, the organization would not be tied to a single political party.

Ok, so I am dreaming. I would be overjoyed if the White House would stop attacking portions of our population that are so fragile that they can’t defend themselves and to stop attacking our environment to satisfy his ‘Big Oil’ and big business friends.

Remember: if the planet is allowed to go past the environmental recovery tipping point, there won’t be any do-overs.)

Source for this post: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

Website and webpages: http://www.defra.gov.uk
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/cc-instruments/index.htm
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/research/carboncost/pdf/background.pd
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/research/carboncost/index.htm