Transcript 3. The Politics of Climate Change

UK Climate Policy
And Politics
A National Perspective
Andrew Pendleton
Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr)
Oslo, 25 May 2010
Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Climate Change Act (2008)
- What does it say?
- How does it work?
Climate policy in the UK
- How the UK implements the Act?
The Politics of Climate Change
- Why there are still major challenges
- Fairness and the climate paradox
The Way Forward
1. The Climate Change Act
• Passed in 2008 following a major UK campaign (see
http://opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080027_en_2#pt1)
• Four main elements:
- 2050 target of at least 80% reductions in GHG emissions
below 1990 levels
- 2020 interim target of at least 34% reductions in GHG
emissions below 1990 levels (without offset credits)
- Carbon budgets in five year periods (now set to 2022)
- Climate Change Committee established to advise on targets,
budgets and policy (see http://www.theccc.org.uk/home)
1. The Climate Change Act
Source: Department for Energy and Climate Change
2. Climate policy in the UK
• EU ETS
– Covers the high emitters in the UK economy§§
• CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme
– Non ETS sectors, such as supermarkets and hospitals
– 20,000 organisations taking part with 5,000 buying permits
• Renewables Obligation
– Predates the Climate Change Act as was established in 2002
– Recent revision weight subsidy in favour of offshore wind
• Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT)
– Aimed at households to encourage efficiency
– Obligation is on energy suppliers to provide household efficiency
2. Climate policy in the UK
• Climate Change Levy
– A small levy on energy use for businesses; recycled as a tax relief
– Likely to be changed to become a tax on emissions
• Moratorium on coal power
– Previous government had agreed no new coal without CCS
– New government may introduce and EPS
• Energy Bill expected in new Parliament
– Likely to include provisions for new nuclear
– Possible focus on de-centralised energy
• Feed-in-tariff
– Was due to go ahead for small and domestic installations
– May now be expanded to overlap with RO
3. Politics of Climate Change
• 3. Politics of Climate Change
• 3. Politics of Climate Change
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3. Politics of Climate Change
Debate in UK is far from settled
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
% all
3. Politics of Climate Change
• 3. Politics of Climate Change
• 3. Politics of Climate Change
3. Politics of Climate Change
Income
Decile
1st (Poorest)
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th (Richest)
% change in average
weekly income (before
housing costs)
-1.07
-0.71
-0.65
-0.6
-0.55
-0.48
-0.43
-0.37
-0.34
-0.25
% change in average weekly
income (after housing costs)
Figure 1: Distributional effect of carbon tax @ £25 per tonne of CO2 (ippr 2010)
-1.68
-0.88
-0.75
-0.76
-0.63
-0.53
-0.47
-0.4
-0.37
-0.27
4. The Way Forward
Less likely to vote for that
• 3. 80%
Politics of Climate Change
party
More likely to vote for that
70%
party
• 3. 60%
Politics of Climate Change
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
-10%
-20%
Foreign oil and gas - all
Climate change - All
Economic Opps - All
4. The Way Forward
• Even in the climate-progressive UK, there are deep
troubles ahead as climate policy ‘bites’.
• There is a need to reframe away from climate policy for the
sake of the climate
• ippr’s research suggests that in the UK, that means a focus
on energy security (the end of cheap oil and gas!)
• Fairness is also important - although Norway is already a
fairer country than the UK!
• Each country may well be different; ippr plans to repeat its
research elsewhere.
• The end of the road for environmentalism, or just a new
road altogether?
THANK YOU
For further information, please contact
[email protected] / www.ippr.org