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Showing posts from May 8, 2016

Perhaps Climate Change Is About More Than Control Over Gas Emissions

Dear Reader, Last week's article - about U-turns - brought me to thinking about the state of affairs on Climate Change, especially in view of the fact that the UK has a major target to achieve by 2050. The thought can easily be "is the UK really serious about the subject, or is it just talking?". Well, surprisingly enough, the UK has made it a legal commitment to be responsible in this matter in the Climate Change Act, 2008. One clause states: "It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline." The UK had in fact (according to reports) accomplished 30% against the 1990 baseline by 2015, so it does appear that there is not a lot of shilly-shallying that the government can do, and some progress has been made (it would appear). The rules are laid out in stone. But the recent Paris Convention was a call to all major nations to take the matter seriously: the UK (